
Mabel Feltmate
The following story is part of a volume of stories collected from the residents of the R.K. MacDonald Nursing Home in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. For more information on this project, click here.
Mabel was born and raised in Goshen. She enjoyed her time in the woods cutting pulp as much as she loved her kitchen for baking bread and cinnamon rolls.
Mabel Feltmate is originally from Goshen where she used to live in a three bedroom house. She spent most of her childhood there until it burned down. Every Christmas, she used to help her mother put up decorations and bake. She also had four siblings—one sister (Annie) and three brothers (Bill, Walter and Eddie). As a child, Mabel loved to play with dolls; she had a bunch of them.
When Mabel was in her teenage years, she used to babysit babies for one certain lady. She used to work with her dad in the woods, and they sold the wood to make a living. She loved to bake and cook. She used to bake cinnamon rolls, bread, muffins and pies, and she used to cook stew meat, carrots and pudding.
As Mabel got older, she married a man named Harry Feltmate and had their ceremony in a church in Antigonish. She had three daughters (Marie, Winnie and Shayla) and two sons (David and Arthur). She also has two grandchildren (both girls).
Mabel Feltmate is now a resident at the R.K MacDonald Home and is very happy with her roommate, Viola Sampson.
Collected from Mabel Feltmate by Holly Hiltz, Fall of 2011. All photos by Kathryn Collicot.