Retired?

Kathleen Abbott

Kathleen Abbott of Port au Port West is a very active senior. She is the driving force behind the restoration of Our Lady Of Mercy Museum. She has big plans for the convent and Our Lady Of Mercy Church. But she wasn't always interested. I visited Kathleen at the museum.

I WASN'T ALL THAT INTERESTED AT FIRST. I started working on the museum project the year I retired from teaching, 1990. This museum used to be the rectory. It had been rented out several times and it was ready to be demolished.

I was called for a meeting and I said yes. I was voted in as chairperson and I've been here ever since. It was quite a challenge, and gets to be more of a challenge every year. I always had something to do, because I had four children and I had to raise them as a single parent. My husband died over forty-five years ago.

First of all, we started on the museum. The sun porch was falling down. Right away we had to look for project funding and there wasn't a lot of money.

We started sending out feelers through the church bulletin. We asked people to bring in information and pictures. And we got what we could from the schools.

Right now our high school is closing and we have made a deal with the principal that the trophies and the pictures will come here. There is always something coming in so we can freshen the displays, or develop new ones. Parishioners are taking a lot of pride in it now, especially since it has become a provincial heritage structure.

Each year we do something different to encourage visitors. We have a tea room which we will open next week. We serve tea in pots and we serve old-fashioned recipes.