On the farm, Mary worked hard but found time to take an active part in the Home and School Association, Women’s Institute, and Women’s Liberal Association. She also served as President of the Catholic Women’s League and for several years, Council Clerk for the Village of Sussex Corner . After raising her children, she worked for more than 15 years with Statistics Canada. In her later years, she was an energetic volunteer with the Sussex Sharing Club on a weekly basis.

Although Mary was a formal teacher for only a few years, her love of learning and education never ceased; as demonstrated by her involvement in her children’s studies. Geraldine often remarked, “I never went to high school with an unsolved algebra problem. Dad usually found the answer in his head, while Mom would help us formulate the equation properly.”

In Mary’s era, the cellar was a storage area for jams, jellies, pickles, fruit, and vegetables, not for pool tables and plasma TVs.

A pioneer of recycling, Mary shipped woolen rags to a mill to be woven into woolen blankets. Even before she was married, she was recycling when she “turned” a winter coat. From flour bags and remnants came quilts; from older medical lab coats came white dress pants for the boys. As son, Frank, observed, “Mom was the most resourceful person I know. She could stretch a four-pound roast to feed a crowd of 20 and did it in a calm, cool, and collected manner.”

She took great delight in personally fixing things, from sewing machines to refrigerators. She turned her hand also to wallpapering and painting. Seldom was she timid to tackle any task.

Many afternoons Mary spent time with several ladies in the community, quilting, exchanging patterns, sipping tea, and socializing, while serving her delicious, homemade brown bread.

Underlying all of Mary’s passion was her love of cards, bridge, solitaire, and auction 45’s. In fact, she played three weeks prior to her death.

Even in the last few years, as her hearing and eyesight were declining, she could still seek and absorb facts. She solved crossword puzzles and continued her genealogical hunt. Mary and her nephew Bobby Hynes shared a special interest in family history. She always reserved a special spot in her heart for all her nieces and nephews.

Many of Mary’s homespun philosophies have left an indelible mark on the lives of so many people – “waste not, want not.” She never lacked the appreciation for the world’s beauty – nature, her flower garden, raspberry patches, rhubarb clumps, crabapple trees and squash fields. She has left the world better than she found it, whether by her acts of kindness, devotion to family, or work for a better community.

 Mary is survived by her step-daughter Lois McQuinn and her husband Jarvis of Sussex; her daughter, Geraldine Reinders and her husband Ted of Saint John; three sons: Phelan Cotter and his wife Betty of Trenton, NS, Frank Cotter and his wife Mary Lou of Fredericton and Paul Cotter and his wife Judy of Toronto, Ontario; two daughters-in-law: Elizabeth Cotter of Sussex and Honey Cotter of Rothesay; 20 grandchildren: Mary McConchie and her husband Kenny, Shaun McQuinn and his wife Cheryl, Anne Blanchard and her husband Bob, Margaret Aiton and her husband Gene, Monica MacWilliam and her husband Peter, David Cotter and his wife Heather, Catherine Cotter, Francis Reinders and his wife Sabrina, Mona Reinders Schellenberger and her husband Eric, Michelle Iatrou and Mimi, Karen Spurrell and her husband Glen, Stacey Allen and her husband Trevor, Andrea Evans and her husband Stephen, Christine MacDonald and her husband Greg, Susan Cotter, Kelly Cotter, John Cotter, Jeannine Cotter, Lisa Cotter and Robin Cotter; 32 great-grandchildren: Jane, Joel, John, Jake, Tania, Max, Jackson, Mitch, Cassidy, Nicholas, Brandon, Marcus, Alex, Aidan, Erin, Xavier, Stephanie, Alexander, Richard, Kallie, Mia, Theodore, Andrew, Adam, Christopher, Matthew, Michael, Melanie, Jenna, John, Julia and Ryan; three great-great-grandchildren: Lucas, Gracein and MacKenzie; as well as several nieces and nephews.

Mary was the last surviving member of her immediate family. She was predeceased by her husband Walter who passed away in 1994, her step-son, Edward, who passed away in 2006; her son, John who passed away in 2004; her sister, Tedda Fennell who passed away in 1988 and her brother, John Hynes who passed away in 2005.