Mohammed, Mary
Mary Mohammed (née Ling) was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her mother, Mrs. How Ling (née Chong Toy Sing) was born in China and sold in early childhood to a wealthy Chinese merchant family in Vancouver as a mui tsai, or servant girl. When How (George) Ling’s first wife died in childbirth, he chose Chong Toy Sing as a second wife in 1918. The Lings became the second Chinese family to settle in the city of Halifax. They worked a farm on the north end of the city overlooking Africville, and their daughter Mary grew up as her mother’s helper and closest confidante. When their farm was sold to developers, the family opened the Imperial Café in downtown Halifax, which served Western food to the many sailors and soldiers coming through the city during the war. In the 1950s, Mary and her mother assisted new Chinese immigrants adjust to life in Canada. But when Mary became engaged to a Trinidadian scientist, Halifax’s Chinese community ostracized the Ling family. Mary went on to raise four children and opened up the popular Halifax baked-goods business, Mary’s Bread Basket.
Here, the youngest Ling children pose for a photo on the family farm at 610 Gottingen Street with the family’s farmhouse in the background. Soon after this photo was taken in 1939, the family gave up the farm when the landlord decided to develop on the land. Mary Mohammed’s (née Ling) older brother Tom was the amateur photographer of the family and documented many candid scenes such as this one. From left: George, Frances, Mary and Lloyd.
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