It was not a story we would see on our Texas cable. No, I found out a few days later on Facebook, actually, that Rita MacNeil had died.
Had a call from my sister-in-law in Sydney (Nova Scotia) and we talked about Rita's demise.
She was a Canadian through and through. She came from a town on the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton called Big Pond.
She was not glamorous at all, but oh, how she could sing!
Rita was born with a cleft palate and had several surgeries for that. She was a single mother and her life was not an easy one.
She went to the "Big City" - Toronto - and cleaned houses there.
All the time, she was writing songs about her home - the beauty of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia - and about the Coal Miners from there.
We visited her Tea Room in Big Pond a few years ago and I still have my replica in my curio cabinet.
She tried to joke about herself and when I saw her about 25 years ago at the then O'Keefe Centre in Toronto, she wore a large hat and kicked off her shoes and made fun of her large size.
I have talked before about my brother-in-law singing with Men of the Deeps, a Group of retired coal miners who sing many songs Rita wrote. Sometimes, Men of the Deeps toured with Rita.
I have given you some links to YouTube videos of Rita and if you go there yourself, you will find many more and also interviews. By the way, my brother-in-law, Sen is the one toward the right with his thumbs in his belt.
Sometimes I have trouble describing some of the Canadian things I am still very passionate about and Rita is surely one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GtMIMwnW_g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toknq7zj0TE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUnRhsbObPE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31_Bjif2KZs
11 years ago
