Page 56 - Aunt Annie MacLeod, Wreck Cove

ISSUE : Issue 48

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1988/6/1

gate. And I don't know why we stayed at the gate, or who was there, but there was some more than me--I don't know who. But Dan used to have his--there was a shed to that side of the barn. He built it for his car. So somebody said, "Oh my gosh, look! Uncle Dan left the lights on his car." So more than one of us saw it. So somebody said, you know, they'd have to go in and tell him. Went in, he had gone to bed. He came, and he said, "There was no lights on the car," he said, "what in the world was wrong?" There was no light in the car. Shortly after that, Josie's mother died, and there's where they made the coffin. That's what they were saying we saw. I don't know. Well we saw it really, the light. We were sure. Because, we sent some? body in to wake him up, and he got out of bed and got his clothes on, came to put the light out in his car, and got there, there was no light in his car. (Is that the only thing you ever saw?) Yes. Thank God for that. Oh, wasn't I scared of things like that! You know, then they used to have people waked in the house. And oh, my goodness, I was scared to death to be anjrwhere alone. I remember being up at Murdock John Mac? lnnes 's- -you know, his wife and I were first cousins. And anyway, they slept down? stairs: Murdock John and his wife and his mother and the children--they were small then. But the oldest, Christine, she wanted Rudderham's Sport Shop Ltd. Large Selection of Men's and Ladies' Summer Sports Clotliing by • Q P. • Adidas • Converse • Speedo • Nike • Brooks ' ' Men's and Ladies' Deck Shoes by WOLVERINE GREB 2 LOCATIONS IN SYDNEY: Cape Breton Shopping Plaza 562-3666 Mayflower Mall 539-3664 to sleep with me. Oh, yes, I wanted that anyway. And I was going to sleep upstairs. So when the time came to go to bed, the other one started saying, "1 want to sleep with..." Perhaps she started saying, "I was there before--you were there before--it's my turn now." And their father said, "None of you are going." Oh, I could have died! When I knew I was going to sleep upstairs alone. (So you rarely slept alone. You slept with Katherine, you slept with your aunt out west.) Yeah, see, I slept with Aunt Kate. I was 11 years when I went out west. And then, you know, I had a hard time out there, about sleeping. Not so much in Mani? toba, I don't remember. But out west--isn't that awful? Whatever was the reason I was nervous there. I'd say to Aunt Rachel, "I cough, now, and if you're awake, you cough." This going on: some nights she'd say, "Oh, what's the use!" She'd have to come to bed with me. But I was always, really--I don't think I ever got over it completely, that I know of. (You and your husband did not have separate beds.) No. (Never.) No. I guess, perhaps, sleeping with somebody. See, I slept with Aunt Kate, then when I came home from the west, I slept with Aunt Kate, till I got married. (So you were in your 20s, and you were still sleeping with Aunt Kate.) Yes. That's right. (So one night you were in bed with Aunt Kate, and the next,night you were in bed with your husband George. Is that true?) Yeah. So I never had to sleep alone. You know, really, that's what happened to (Would you sleep with one of your children when George was away?) Oh, yes. I always slept with somebody. You know, years ago when people had small children--nobody had cribs first, for children. No. They slept with you. That's why that woman said. Her children were sleeping with her, but, she said, they never slept between them. I read that story in your magazine. (See "Reiteach. a Scottish Engagement Rite" in Issue 5 of CAPE BRETON'S MAGAZINE.) She said, all those years, they had a lot of children, "But none of the children ever slept between us," she said. But I remember when we lived in the old house. Well, Allister was a year in June, and Anna was born in October. And, you know, the house wouldn't be warm. The two children slept with us. Yeah, they did. Al? lister used to like to work with his fa? ther's hair. (Aren't you surprised that you only had three children?) Well, that's all we want? ed. (How did you make that decision?) That, we made that decision. George was 9 years old when his mother died, and he was very upset any time he knew we were going to have a child. He was very upset about it.

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