When I am at my place on the gulf shore of Nova Scotia, looking out onto the Northumberland Strait, I feel completely relaxed. When I walk through the door, it’s a huge sigh of relief. It’s my light at the end of the tunnel.

The winters in Nova Scotia are long, so you have to take advantage of every minute — although I’d rather be there in lousy weather than just about anywhere else. It’s a very serene coast, not the ruggedness you see elsewhere in Nova Scotia, but still enveloped in the same salty ocean air. We have red sand flats that mirror the shores on the south side of Prince Edward Island.

I bought the place around 1980 when I was married with two tiny children. Ever since, I’ve spent months there every summer. I was so sad whenever I had to leave, which was quite often as I was on the road frequently. Driving down the long lane and leaving my kids behind was incredibly difficult. But it was also the location of countless happy family memories, as well as fond childhood memories, as I grew up about a half an hour away on that same coastline. It was a fantastic place to raise children. We’d host these fun family reunions with aunts and uncles, some of which were real barn burners where we’d sing our hearts out and play guitars.

Now, I host my band and some of my crew here every three years. We have a reunion for all the people I travelled with, or as many as we can get there. Nobody can sing the way they used to, but we give it a go anyways.

– As told to Samantha Pope 

Nova Scotia is the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People, governed by the Peace and Friendship treaties.