Catherine Hennessey
I met Catherine Hennessey in the spring of 1994 while working at the PEI Crafts Council. Catherine was a city councillor at the time, and was working with the Crafts Council on some sort of Anne of Green Gables commemorative project.
I'm not sure how, but somehow I ended up visiting her soon thereafter at her little house on Dorchester Street, and gradually I got drawn into her circle.
Catherine is a force to be reckoned with: she is an historian, a writer, an urban planner, and a would-be architect. There is seldom a time when she doesn't have at least a dozen projects on the go. She is passionate about Prince Edward Island, and even more passionate about Charlottetown.
At various times over the years I have:
- helped Catherine pick up the carcass of one of her recently slaughtered pigs to deliver to her friend the butcher; at the time she was driving a small pick-up truck with a dashboard made of wood
- driven from Charlottetown to Boston in her subsequent vehicle, a Ford Escort wagon
- eaten more bowls of very, very good macaroni and cheese than I can remember in Catherine's kitchen
- launched a giant balloon in protest over the height of a proposed condominium on the Charlottetown's waterfront
- worked on Catherine's ill-fated mayoral campaign
- become friends with innumerable of Catherine's friends
Catherine was made a Member of the Order of Canada in a ceremony on May 31, 2001.
You can read her weblog, of late, alas, irregularly maintained.