Lionel and Shirley (Arsenault)

Known to most of us as "LEO", his birthname is Joseph Lionel (leo-nel). He was born Nov 9, 1937. His wife Shirley Marie Arsenault was born on January 25, 1939. Leo and Shirley raised their family on the DOIRON HOMESTEAD farm in PEI. They farmed for most of their life together while taking jobs off the farm. While Leo was known for his carpentry work, especially roofing and building barns, later in life he worked mainly on civil construction projects around PEI with Highfield Construction. Shirley left Stella Marris High School in Grade 11 because in those years you could get a teaching certificate in 1 year, with a Grade 11, so she went to Prince Of Wales College to obtain the teaching certificate. Upon graduation began her teaching career for the next 4 years and describes, "I hated every minutes of it!" She claims she was "told" by her parents that this is what she would do, even though her dream was to be a nurse.  So she persevered and taught at Toronto Road School, St. Ignatius in Mayfield (she remembers teaching her niece Bernice Peters (Doucette), St. Mary's in Hope River and finally, Cavendish School. She specifically talks about how she boarded at Orville Houston's house in Cavendish (now the big homestead on the grounds of Marco Polo Land) and it was so cold in the winter she used an electrical light socket and bulb in her bed to keep warm. After a few weeks of that nonsense she was done of her teaching career, quit and went to work at Revel Dickieson's store (now the Toy Factory and formerly Ollen Ellis' store) in New Glasgow. She said she loved that job.   She was a stay-at-home Mom as the children came along. They had 5 children over the next 7 years with a 6th came along 9 years later.  When asked how they came up with the names of their children, Shirley chuckles and says, "I don't know really, I'd throw out a name a "Dad" would say yep, and that was it." She had a couple of girlfriends whose names she liked (Carlene and Bernadine, who was also called DeeDee), almost called Maureen "Roberta" after her mother Bertha, and Willis was a character on a soap opera she loved and she thought it was a different name that she liked. As for Louis and Colin, "well, they just happened', she chuckles. Eventually she was known as the driving force at St. Ann's Church Lobster Suppers (Lionel also chopped lobsters for a time at the suppers). In 1988 she was determined to fulfill her dream of being a nurse so returned to life as a student, obtained her Grade 12 with GED, and attended the Central School of Nursing in PEI in 1988 and 1989, and at the of age 50, became a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) from which she retired in December 2004. Leo and Shirley inherited the family homestead on the premise that he had to provide a place to stay for any of the family members who came "home-from-away". During the summers the house was always full with relatives coming and going. Many Saturday night kitchen-parties were held with family, friends and neighbors. Sunday 'after-church' card games usually occurred leading to a stint at the shore with Shirley digging clams, the kids filling 5-gallon buckets and Leo walking the shallow waters for oysters and quahogs. Their daughter Maureen became the resident expert in quahog-picking and still is the "quahog-picking-queen" today. The winters were always quieter - heavy snows prevented access to the lane down to the house but Leo always managed to find a way to get friends and family down to the house for a sing-song or a card party - even using the horse and sleigh to navigate the snow banks. While there was always a lot of fun and music and laughter happening at the household, Leo and Shirley had a phenomenal work ethic, as did many of the families in the community. Cows had to be milked twice a day regardless of the weather, Shirley's large garden needed tending, the expansive lawns on the property had to be groomed, wood had to be cut and chopped and stacked in the cellar for winter, extensive canning and bottling occurred preparing for upcoming winters and it seemed that painting the house was a recurring activity (but never the barn lol). Shirley shared that, in those early years, before she was married, her Dad would get her up at 4am, milk cows by hand, strip the cream off, load the cream into steel cans and then by 6am she would drive the route around Hope River, Cavendish, Mayfield and North Rustico, picking up other farmers fresh cream and deliver that to the New Glasgow Dairy. Then they, and Mort Larkin, would dump the cream into the processing equipment, then wash each and every cream can, load them on their truck and return the empty cans back to the farmer - then do it all again at night. No wonder she had a serious work-ethic! Some how Shirley managed to always have a large meal in the oven and on the table, whether it was for a crew after wood cutting, a card party after church or even at midnight after a night of dancing at the Gordon Lodge or for one of their frequent kitchen parties. They were known for their volunteer work in the local church for over 50 years. They both attended choir at St. Ann's Church with Shirley leading the choir for many years as director and organist. Leo served as an altar boy in his early years and as a teenager. He thought he was rich receiving 10 cents a mass or 25 cents a week (they held mass every morning back then). He'd then walk over to the local credit union to deposit his "cash" every week - there was a Credit Union Bank in St. Ann's near the church. He then graduated to the choir after that where he was known for his booming voice, singing off-time to the beat, his solo rendition of Psalm 23 (The Lord is My Shepard) and his "tick" French accent to the lyrics of "dat" song. In his vernacular it went like this, "Duh Lord is my Shepard, dare is nudding I shall want." In the early days his father Angus, would sing the Latin masses at the church and the Gregorian Chant at funerals and Leo would fill in for him often, also singing in Latin at the Masses of the Angels. Leo passed away suddenly of a massive heart attack on Dec 31, 2010, while standing and practicing a song, in the same church pew he sat in for many years, for a funeral that was about to occur for his sister-in-law Marie (Ivan) Doiron, with his wife Shirley at the organ just a few feet away. Leo sang in the church choir for over 50 years and died doing just that, which he loved and cherished. Shirley was an organist and choir director in St. Ann's Church, then later on at Summerfield Church, for over 60 years. She and Leo were married for 52 years at the time of Leo's passing.

Shirley married Ronald (Ron) Peters on May 2, 2015 and he extended Shirley's family with 2 children from his previous marriage (Monica and Darren). Ron passed away Mar 6, 2023. Shirley continues to live close to her daughter Maureen in Stratford, PEI.