Category: Ina Sessions

Ina Austina Webb – born a long time ago – mid 1930’s – at home on a small mixed dairy farm in Chelton, Prince Edward Island – the sparkling waters of the the Northumberland Strait within view.

Proudly she is the first child of Keith Webb and Margaret Lowther. The first grandchild of Annie Ellice Laird. The first local grandchild of Ernest & Myrtle Webb. First niece of Anne and Edward Lowther, Marion, Anita, Lorraine and Pauline Webb. She is in serious danger of being spoiled rotten. Sadly she would soon seriously require and receive all of their love and support.

We know for sure that her unusual middle name is after her great Uncle Austin Laird of Cavendish, PEI. We think her first name may have originated after an Ina in the Keith family of Havelock New Brunswick where her Grandmother Myrtle McNeill Webb was raised.

One thing we know for sure is – you can’t have an Ina without a Louise – the two go together – like lobster and butter.

Ada Louise Webb therefore arrived as soon as she possibly could. She is named after her great grandmother Ada McNeill Simpson and her Great Aunt Louise Webb.

Ina made sure her sister Louise was well nourished.

Now Ina always claims that her sister Louise is the social butterfly and that she is the shy quiet one. Well, we’ll be the judge of that. As you can see below , both of them are characters -as they entertain their Uncle Charles MacFarlane and their mother’s sister Aunt Anne Lowther MacFarlane. Ina is the one with the cool sunglasses.

The two sisters have a happy life in Chelton surrounded by family and friends. Yes , times are tough, the Great Depression is always in the background and a Great War looms on the horizon. One would think a farm on the Northumberland Strait in PEI would be far removed from the Great War. And it was – but it wasn’t. Summerside PEI just across Bedeque Bay – is where many Canadian Air Force heroes were trained. Ina remembers seeing planes like the one below flying over the farm or the strait – and waving at them!

In the winter of 1940 mother Margaret Lowther Webb is expecting. We know now that she is expecting a baby boy – a brother for Ina and Louise. But it is not to be. Margaret miscarries. It is a stormy snowy night in early December . Despite the desperate efforts of Keith and friends and neighbours it is impossible in the snowy blizzard to get Margaret to the hospital in Summerside in time for help. Tragically the two sisters and their father Keith lose their Mother and the new baby. Anne and Edward lose their precious big sister. Ellice loses her daughter. Margaret is only 28 years of age. Ina is 5 years old, Louise is 4 years old. The photo below is the last one we have of Ina and her mother Margaret together. ( listen to Ina’s recollection of this tragedy in the first Ina Session)

Life carries on with the support of friends neighbours, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles. And most importantly – the two sisters – learn to support each other. They attend the Little Red Schoolhouse in North Carleton together – and despite the long walk of over two miles uphill there and back – through thick forests populated by grizzly bears – they each win attendance awards in Grade One. ( you can listen to some of their – on the way to school – adventures – in the first Ina Session in a minute)

Their father Keith is having difficulty coping. He decides to pull up roots and make a change in geography. He will join his sisters Marion, Anita and Lorraine all in Ontario. While he is scouting out his future in Ontario his daughters will stay with their Grandparents in Cavendish, P.E.I.

This is the very first “Ina Session” recorded at her high tech Condo Recording Studio in Georgetown, Ontario in November 2020. ( okay – we just used the voice recorder on my Huawei phone) Both Ina and son Alan were nervous at the start – but we got through it.

Following each session we would send the recordings to her sister Louise in New Glasgow Prince Edward Island.

Louise’s recollections are below.

You asked about what we ate. Lots of potatoes and milk for sure. I remember often having “sops” in the evenings. It was chunks of homemade bread with warm milk on it and some brown sugar.Maybe there wasn’t anything else. We certainly didn’t mind it.Dad would pull two chairs over to the sink and put one of us on each chair and we were to wash and dry the dishes.

I can vividly remember the night Ina talked about when we went to Aunt Martha’s during a snowstorm. The horses were up to their bellies in snow and Dad and Mom had to get out to try to shovel them out. We should never have left home and our Mom died a few days later.

The wake and funeral are also vivid memories. Dad stood with one of us in each arm and cried his heart out. We had never seen him shed a tear before.

You asked about games. I remember playing cards with lamplight at the kitchen table with Clayton and Frances, Dad and Mrs. Wells. She was always Mrs. Wells to us and we loved her. She smelled wonderful and was really a kind lady. Harry and I visited her in Delray, Florida, and she was as nice as ever.

I remember going to the brook by the beach at our shore in the spring when the smelts were running. They were so plentiful that we scooped them out with our hands and buckets. Also after helping with hay we would go to the beach for a dip. It was wonderful!

Visitors— Grandad’s brother, Uncle Ted, and his wife, Aunt Anna, visited from California and brought us each a doll. It was a very exciting day. I don’t remember that we had ever had a toy.

 I remember the rations during the war. Also  how excited we were when we finally got to taste bananas. Also there were a lot of Gypsies (beggars) knocking on the door looking for food. We were pretty scared of them.

Our teacher at North Carleton was Dorothy MacFarlane, not Lowther,. Her Mother was Aletha Lowther, Harry’s Dad’s sister. She was a wonderful teacher but one day during art class she gave our class children’s scissors to do something. I cut out the square on the front of my plaid skirt that Aunt Nete had made for us. She never gave me scissors again. To make things worse Aunt Nete was there when we got home!

 At recess time and lunch time we played Anti Anti Over with a ball thrown over the outhouse—- girls on one side, boys on the other

Cavendish was a long way away by horse and wagon or sleigh.. when we went in the winter time we had heated bricks at our feet and lots of blankets. It seemed to take until dark to get there and we’d stay for a couple of days.

Both Louise and Ina fondly remember the visit of their great Uncle Ted Webb and his wife Anna in the summer of 1938. They come all the way from California where Uncle Ted works as a carpenter on Hollywood movies sets for Sam Goldwyn Studios. That is cool – or whatever they said back then. But what was especially cool – and one reason the visit is so well remembered – is that they came bearing gifts . Two dolls – one for each of Ina and Louise. The sisters had never had anything like that before.

Farewell Party at Aunt Martha’s and Uncle Wilbert’s

Louise : I’ve shed more than a few tears – I remember that day well – I still have the pen.