‘It was quite a life’

94-year-old Alva McDormand Recounts Her Many Adventures in the Fishing Boat For 94 years, Westport Briar Island has been home for Alva McDormand. Born and raised in a family of seven on the tiny island at the end of Digby Neck, she married her sweetheart Charlie at 17. The couple built a house next to where Charlie grew up in the community, where they raised three children, where fishing was the way of life and where Alva still resides. In the summers, Alva would go fishing with Charlie, ...