Unlike, sister Marion, Edith Nicholson never joked about being 'an old maid' in her 1910 era letters - and, unlike Marion, she never did marry.

My husband recalls asking his Mom about Edith "Why is THAT WOMAN always hanging around?" A mere child, he didn't understand the concept of unmarried older women. In and around 1960,  Old Maid Edith was living with sister Flora and her husband Wesley on Grey Avenue in Westmount, Quebec. She lived with her sister until the end of her life.

And what a life it was! Unlike her sisters Marion and Flo, she never attended Normal School so couldn't get a 'good paying' job as a teacher at the Montreal Board.

The 1910 era letters show she trained as a secretary (perhaps at a Boston school) but worked as a teacher, off and on, at Radnor Forges in 1908,  Ecole Methodiste Westmount,  1909-1912,  and in Richmond for a year or two around 1914. Here's a pic (maybe) of Edith and Ecole Methodiste staff

After that, she went work for Sun Life and even trained as an insurance agent. In the 20's she is Tutor in Residence at The Hostel, a residence for students of Physical Education at McGill.  I have a year book "Hostelights' from 1928-29 that is dedicated to her. "Edith writes in it: "Our expression of greetings and congratulations to the Members of the Graduating Class likewise implies good-bye. You, who are going out to serve the world according to your talents and your strengths, are leaving behind you, with us who remain, many happy memories. What lingers with us is not only your ability and your success, but your personality, your capacity for comradeship and loyal friendship, your general attitude of kindly sympathy and unselfish service and honor. These qualities  must be applied in future to your future work."

She later worked in the Registrar's Office at McGill and as Assistant Warden at Royal Victoria College, the Woman's Dorm. Edith's great niece, Dean, recalls being brought to graduation preparations as a child in the late 40's or early 50's and seeing all the woman graduates in their elegant red and gold gowns. Edith always encouraged Dean, who had a reading disability, to reach for the stars (and this was the 50's when women were being encouraged, once again, to return to the domestic sphere.) Dean went on to get a doctorate in special education. During WW11 Edith was a Commandant with the Quebec Red Cross. I have a portrait of her in her uniform, a handsome, full figured middle aged women.

Edith considered sister Marion's 4 children "her family." In hospital in the 30's she complains that 'her family has neglected her' for no one has come to see her. Well, her nieces were in their late teens and probably otherwise occupied.

Despite working all of her life, Edith lived out her old age in 'genteel poverty' in large part because she had to pay out so much for medical bills over the years. The medical interventions worked, however, she lived into  her nineties!

Of all the Nicholson sisters, it is Edith who is most interested in family, who keeps everyone together. She writes the most letters to her mom and she makes sure these missives are rich in 'girly detail.' (Marion's letters to Mom are all business, although her letters to girlfriends are probably full of fun.)

Edith clearly likes to gossip and in her early years, at least, she keeps tabs of all the romantic goings-on in her social group. She describes some women as 'incorrigible flirts' and some men as 'persistent beggars.'

She is always falling in and out of love, herself, which makes her fate as an Old Maid  kind of ironic.

She also loves to 'step out'  on the town and, in one letter, laments the fact that, as a woman, she can not go out alone, to a lecture or a musical event. (Is it any different for women today? I wonder. What woman can go out alone?) Church was the only place she felt could go when by herself and she did; she loved a good sermon!.

The story goes Edith never married because she lost her great love in a hotel fire. Read the 1910 letters for more details.  I think she never married because she wanted to squeeze the most out of life and for women of that time, (maybe of today, too) marriage was 'the end of experience.' There's another memory my husband has of his great Aunt Dede. She's about 93, sitting on the edge of her bed in her room at Tighsolas, blind as a bat, imploring him to take advantage of every moment he has. Life is far too precious to waste, she tells him..

Edith makes two trips to Europe during her lifetime, to Scotland to research her roots and to France, where she comments on the care the French take in the preparing of their food, even 'boiled dishes'.