Dec 2025
Mary Hurst never did anything halfway. Born in Antigonish to Alice and Colin MacInnis, she grew up in a big family and carried that sense of connection with her throughout her life.Her path was never a straight line. She started in record keeping, moved into X-ray technology, and then did something unexpected: she went to Africa. For two years she helped establish a hospital, and while she was there, she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. When she came home to Nova Scotia, she decided to become a dentist. She graduated from Dalhousie and practiced for more than 40 years. Mary believed that everyone who needed care should get it. She built a practice in Antigonish, sold it, and started another in Guysborough. She provided pediatric dentistry at St. Martha’s Hospital and looked after seniors in nursing homes. She travelled to Guatemala on dental missions. If someone couldn’t pay, she helped them anyway. She was exacting, yes, and expected a lot from the people around her, but she was fair, and she respected hard work because she lived it. If she was working, she was happy.
Mary had an entrepreneurial streak. Over the years, she and Don ran Old McDonald’s Farm Park campground and, separately, the Tee-Time Driving Range. When she couldn’t buy just the piece of land she wanted for a home, she bought the whole acreage and created Parkhurst, a subdivision where the lots were generous and no two houses looked the same. That was how she thought things should be done. Summers belonged to Ballantyne’s Cove. Mary loved to host, and the place became the site of two legendary family reunions, one in the late 1980s and another in the early 2000s, remembered for hilarious mock weddings and late night partying. On quieter days she fished from her boat The Tooth Ferry or worked in her garden, hands in the dirt. Mary loved antiques of all kinds: furniture, jukeboxes, and cars. She and Don were members of the Pictou County Antique Car Club and spent many weekends at show and shine around the province. She was also very sports-minded, meeting her husband on the badminton court, and one of her longest friendships started while playing softball. Mary was predeceased by her husband, Donald Richard Hurst (2013); infant daughters Monica and Kanena; sisters Ethel Tobin, June Gaipo, and Betty Camillo; and brothers Bill, Jack, Philip, Buddy, and Larry. She is survived by her sons Jason (Tammy Holley), Sylvester, and Sandy (Clara), Antigonish; grandchildren Molly, Alec, Emily, and Lauren; siblings Mabel (Clarence) Sutherland, Stellarton, Barry (Lynn) MacInnis, Strathmore, AB, and Evey (Neil) Fowler, Strathmore, AB; as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Visitation will be held at C.L. Curry Funeral Home, 135 College Street, Antigonish, on Friday, January 2, 2026, from 2–4 p.m. and 7–9 p.m. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, January 3, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at St. Ninian’s Cathedral, Antigonish.