'I likes where I'm to'

Lottie Drake lives by the sea. One would imagine from looking at her that she's always lived by the sea, though judging by her Newfoundland accent, not always by this sea.

Her husband Tom was once a fisherman but now, somewhere in his 80s, has knees so bad he has trouble making it across the living room.

"He fished his whole life," she said, even though he gave up the life about 30 years ago.

Still, considering that he started out on a boat in Newfoundland in his early adolescence and fished till back surgery laid him up in the 1980s, that's probably a good 40 years of hard work aboard a ship.

Lottie's house is white with blue window trim and overlooks Ritcey Cove, in Lunenburg County. She doesn't have much land, but that's all right by her. Once her son, the youngest of six children, offered to put them in a bigger house.

No thanks, she said. "I likes where I'm to. I like my spot."

And a good spot it is, Lottie.