My husband and I have spent many years in the Kincardine area however, the urge for a new adventure was overpowering and we made the move and are firmly anchored in a lovely little home far down the road in Cobourg, east of Toronto. When people ask why such a move now in our eighties, we say what we said when we bought a newspaper after farming for 25 years: why not? Back in 1987 that new adventure was moving to Kincardine. It worked.
It isn’t something physical we will miss, it is the people, but thank heavens, we have the memories.
Brian cutting Harry’s hair twice a year when his barber imagined four times might have been better; Cathy’s magical scissors that gave me peace when I looked in the mirror, newspapers that made this town shine, the community concerts that were delightful and those special times when the incredible Michael Burgess sang for us in the Presbyterian Church and the night Michael joined us at Hawg’s Breath with some of the Bluewater Theatre gang of that era, and I realized I was in the presence of one of Canada’s greatest tenors. I had watched him step back during his last concert, letting his musicians carry on, not knowing he was to die of cancer not long after.
It was in Kincardine that I realized I must regain my identity as a Newfoundlander and the seed for my novel Rock Solid took root that night as I stood outside the theatre alone looking at the western skies, and I knew what I had to do, and the magic happened for me.
It took eight more years but Kincardine friends knew what I was up to and they waited. Now Rock Solid is on its own.
From her site: www.carolynmuirhelfenstein.com/
Rock Solid is available at Kincardine Book Store and on-line at Amazon.
