When Florence was born into a family of 12 children in Kings County, life was much more difficult. “My father, kept a horse and drove it to the cooper’s shop in Centerville where he made barrels. My mother’s life was very different than mine; being on a farm when I was married, that was very hard work.”

Florence went to school in Steam Mill, between Centerville and Kentville. It was a one room schoolhouse, and she still recalls her teacher. “I liked Miss Eldercam, she was a sickly woman, not strong, but we all liked her. I left there in Grade 4, when my family
moved.” 

As her sisters grew up and moved out, they could depend on Florence to come and help them out when they needed it. “When I was through school, my mother needed help at home, I said ‘no way am I going away, I’ll take care of her,’ and that’s what I did.”

Like others of her generation, Florence wouldn’t want the “old days” back. “My family, though, I miss them, we were very close. They were a good family, there wasn’t anything bad about them,” she says. 

It was during a working visit to one of her sisters in Burlington that Florence met George. “He came to see me in a car. I enjoyed the car rides, and we had that car from the start.” 

They were married in 1940. The ceremony was held at the parsonage in Upper Canard, officiated by Mr. Fenerty, the minister. “He’s still living,” says Florence, “He helps at funerals; he still knows us; he is a wonderful man.” It was a small, simple wedding, with close family attending. then the couple moved to George’s farm. “I was no good for farming at all, it was so different from what I knew.”

Florence never drove a tractor, or milked the cows. “I enjoyed watching everything that went on. It’s a good healthy life, I had four children and they grew up right, there on the farm.” 

But let no one say that Florence didn’t work. As well as her regular household work, and the care of four children, Florence was responsible for the meals for the hired hands on the farm. “It was a very busy life, four extra at all the meals, that’s a lot of vegetables to prepare; I knew what hard work was all about.” The water supply was a hand-pump in the kitchen, and the cooking was all done on a wood-stove. “I had no fridge, no deep freeze, all those things were yet to come. The fridge, when I got it, took care of everything; there were so many things you could keep over.”

Washing clothes was done on a scrub-board, and everything needed to be ironed when it was clean and dry. “Now, I don’t iron hardly anything, the washer and dryer took a lot of the hard work away.”

Florence and George’s children have stayed in the area, “I love that they’re all nearby,” says their mother, “They’re all where they can come to me in 10 minutes. God bless them.”