Remembering a ‘Kentville icon’
Well-known town resident Eva Turple dies at 67
A familiar voice to many residents of Kentville fell silent Feb. 2.
Eva Turple, 67, was a wellknown sight in the Annapolis Valley town for years, a character in a long line of them to call Kentville home. She died in hospital after falling ill on Jan. 31.
“Hey buddy (or girl), how ya doin’?”
Her distinctive voice could be heard on the streets, in the many businesses she visited on a daily basis, and just about anywhere else in the town. People didn’t need to be close to hear it. If they said something funny, or she did, her cackling laugh would take over.
Eva — it’s likely more people than not only knew her first name — would say hello to anyone, often with a ball cap worn backwards on her head.
Once Eva knew you, she knew you. She would ask about your kids, grandkids, siblings, parents, and aunts and uncles whenever you bumped into one another. She wanted to know what they were doing, where they were, and how life was treating them, even decades after they had moved away and she didn’t see them anymore.
If you did something kind for Eva, she would remember it — and you — forever. If you moved away, she would tell others for years after about the good things you had done.
And if you did something unkind to her or anyone, she would remember that too. Her sputtering, expletive-sprinkled rants could also be legendary.
Shawna Porter was her landlord for years, when Eva lived in one of Porter’s apartments in downtown Kentville. But like many, she doesn’t know a lot about her background, except that she had family who would occasionally send her money.
“She always stopped in to see us (at Porter’s business on the ground floor of the apartments), then she’d stop up at the dollar store. Everybody
knew her,” Porter said. “She was a Kentville icon.”
She said Eva would stop in every year with Christmas cards for Porter’s children, despite her limited financial means.
Porter would give her a ride to doctor appointments or the recycling depot or other places she needed to go.
“She was a good tenant,” Porter said.
Eva eventually moved out, not because of any landlordtenant issues, but rather because other tenants made her want to leave. That was partly
because they would occasionally burn food and set off the fire alarm in the building, usually in the early morning hours. Those rants from the sidewalk could be heard over the alarm on the otherwise quiet streets of the town.
Harlan Wood, Kentville’s bylaw officer, ran into Eva often because his job has him walking in town as much as she did. He said Eva was always willing to chat.
He said he hadn’t seen Eva for a month or so, and then she was back around again.
"She was looking good.
Nothing changed, she was still the same person. She was a great person, she was always funny, and always had something to say, always wanted to talk and take than extra minute to see how your day was going.”
Kentville Mayor Sandra Snow said she didn’t know Eva well, except in passing.
“However, small towns are often defined by their character and the characters we see daily,” she said. “Eva was one of those downtown characters, she was always smiling and always had something to say. She never missed an event or an opportunity to chat with Kentville police officers walking the beat. She will be missed in downtown Kentville.”
John Andrew knew Eva for years, and more so when he was involved with the Open Arms Resouce Centre and shelter. It has a lunch program Eva would go to and occasionally help with. For the past year, he has been a pastor with the Valley Connect Outreach Community Soup Kitchen and Street Ministry.
He said the fact everyone knew her showed her impact on the town.
"Here's a person who wasn't a contributor to the economic machine and the wheels of things, so to speak, but the mark a person can leave by just being that person who talks to everybody, who walks around town in her slippers, who sits in a chair and talks to the clerks at the grocery store ... she couldn't have been more locally famous than if she had been the mayor for 25 years. There's a lesson in that."
Not only was Eva fiercly independent, she was also private.
"She needed to know everybody else's business, but no one got to know hers, Andrew said.