Page 88 - Pere Anselme Chiasson: Conversation and a Family Album

ISSUE : Issue 56

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1991/1/1

red spot on the floor. You see? And she was alone at the time, because her husband was in the harbour fishing. So she went to my grandfather--he was a neighbour--afraid, and nearly screaming. My grandfather treated her as a fool, but he went there. And with his knife or his axe was scraping (the spot on the floor). And the more he scraped, the more he got red. You see? It was like blood. And I've heard them both seeing that. And my grand? father was a holy man. He would not say a lie for to save his life. My aunt, too. So, they had seen that, I heard them tell that several times. There was no explana? tion but that it had been true, it had happened. (And when they were seeing that, what was happening--at the same time that they were seeing the blood on the floor.) The guy was drowned. A few days before, or--I don't know exactly. So my aunt went to see a priest who told her, "Pray for him, and leave it there." But only about 10 years ago, you see, I found the meaning of that. I found the ex? planation- -a natural explanation of the thing. I had the son of my cousin, who had WE CAN HELP YOU REALIZE YOUR DREAM OF HOMEOWNERSHIP! FOR A MORTGAGE TO BUY, BUILD OR RENOVATE, SEE THE LOCAL EXPERTS League Savings 8 Mortgage 235 Charlotte St., Sydney, N.S. BIP6H7 Phone:539-8222 tj. / the meubles, the chairs and tables, done in Campbellton. That gave me the explana? tion. He had chosen a kind of wood, and he said he couldn't make those things right away because they were still--you say in French "stain of blood"--in it. I don't remember what kind of wood it is. But there is a kind of wood that when it's not ripe--ffl(3r (mature) --you have like (a) stain of blood in it. See? And it's in it. You can't scrape it. You won't take it off. And when it becomes ripe, mQr, those stains will disappear. So it was certainly a few planks, a few boards, that they had put on the floor that were still not ripe. And they thought it was.... (In all your life. Father, have you never seen something that you couldn't explain? After a long pause:) I don't remember any? thing. I mean--facts like that? (Yes. That someone has come back. That you saw some? one who had already died. Because I know people must come to you for masses for the dead, for that kind of thing. And I just wondered--you yourself, all the years of collecting, growing up in Cheticamp, have had no experiences like that.) Oh, no. I've seen people who pretend to have seen the Blessed Virgin and things like that. But, nothing that would have been serious. No, not that I remember.... Funny things like--I know that the night that my mother died--I had a brother, my oldest brother, in Boston. And he called. He had the feeling that my mother was dy? ing. Couldn't sleep. And he was in the Mercer Fuels Ltd. ?? FURNACE OIL ?? STOVE OIL ?? LUBE OIL ?? KEROSENE ?? AUTOMATIC DELIVERY ?? BUDGET PLANS - SERVICE PLANS Serving SYDNEY, GLACE BAY, NEW WATERFORD and Surrounding Areas 539-7580 24 HOUR EMERGENCY SERVICES WE ARE A LOCAL COMPANY 64 BROOKLAND ST. SYDNEY

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