Cape Breton's Magazine

From a Night at Bob Fitzgerald's INTRODUCTION: We were visiting with Bob Fitzgerald one nighit. After awhile, Bob's nephew Winston Bri? and came in and joined us. All in all, that was a long night of conversation. At one point we started talk? ing about old signs. And that led to.... (Bob, let me give you an example of a sign someone gave me the other day. He said. "If you look out a window and you see somebody coming, but you don't know that person--you don't recognize them--but when they get to the door, it's someone you know quite well." He said, "If that happens, it means that that person's going to get married quite soon." Did you ev? er hear signs like that?) Bob Fitzgerald: Yes that before.... Kate and Bob Fitzgerald at their home in Dingwall . Oh, yes. I've heard or somewheres in trouble, that there's possibility of your seeing them. And we often say--although I have never seen it, but many people have--if you see a person that's alive--you know, you see them, and they're not there. You've heard of that, I suppose. They call it a "fetch." You see them and they're not there. (Just for a second?) No, no. not for a second. But you see them and they're not there. You see them. Now. Kate (Bob's wife) will tell you--Kate will sit down and tell you that Kate saw me coming to the house, coming home. And I was not near--I was miles and miles away. And my sister Margaret told me that she saw me-- when she lived at White Point, and I lived there--she said she saw me come over from home--I lived in the cove.... And she saw me come over and turn up across the flat and go up to my mother's. And she said she stood in the window and watched me. And I was never there that day--never was. (I take it that it doesn't necessarily mean something bad.) No. no. No. no. They often say that it's people that somebody's wishing to be there at a certain time, that you might see them. Now, lots of times, they say--if a person is in trouble--if they're away from home Now. I remember poor Willie Dunphy--he's dead and gone--he was drowned at White Point. (5ee "The Curtis Family and Songs" in Issue 55, CAPE BRETON'S MAGAZINE.) And he told me that he saw his brother. He went to the barn in the morning before daylight and harnessed the horse. He was going after a load of hay. And he told me he fed the horse and put the harness on him. And he reached through and buckled the belly-girt, and when he straightened up, his brother was standing on the other side of the horse. And his brother was sailing, out of Lunen? burg- -Alexander . And at the time that he said he saw him, they were on their way to the West Indies with a load of lumber. And the vessel waterlogged. And they were tied in the riggings--they had themselves tied in the riggings for 3 days and 3 nights. And at that time that's where he was at-- tied in the rigging of the vessel--before they were saved--before they were rescued. Willie told me that himself--he's dead and in his grave. He told me when he straight? ened up, Alexander was on the other side of the horse. Definitely. And he said he didn't know what to make of it. (These are like signs, but it's not like