Page 5 - With Evelyn Smith, Wreck Cove

ISSUE : Issue 65

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1994/1/1

she said to me. "Did Grandpa bring home from the war the shrapnel that went into his chest? Did he have a locket made for Grandma and bring it home?" "No. Mary." I said, "I don't think he did," "Well," she said, "An? nie Mae told me something about that. You ask her," So then I asked Annie Mae. And An? nie Mae said he had a locket made out of it. It was a piece of the shrapnel that went in --it was so near, close to the heart that I don't think they could remove it all. They removed some of it. I remember the scar. And apparently he had a locket made out of it. And he brought it to her after, when he came home from the war, And they were living in this little cot? tage then. After he came home they decided that they'd move in with my Aunt Effie. to the old homestead, where he had been born, and his Aunt Effie still lived there. So they moved. And of course, everything would have to be carried. I don't know if they even had a horse--I doubt if they did. And a few days after that, she real? ized that she had forgotten to take the brooch. And she had left it on a shelf out in the little cottage. But when they went. I guess some children had come in or some? thing- -it was gone. But I didn't know that until here, just within the last year. (What did they have, your parents? Did they have land? Did they have a farm that your father was working?) Oh, yes. I don't know why they moved to that little cot? tage. Because when his parents died, he stayed in the home--it was his parents' home, and he stayed there. He was the old? est in the family. And he started lobster fishing and looking after the younger ones. And this Aunt Effie was with them. Now I don't know why they moved out into this little bungalow. Or when. But when he went to the war, that's where she was. Now, Aunt Effie died, I think in 1921-- that was the year I was born. So apparent? ly after he came home from the war, they must have moved back in with her. Which was his parents' home. And he renovated it after that a lot, and put dormers on and did a lot of work--added to it. So that was his farm, really, and where he fished from. And Aunt Effie, I guess, died a year or two after they moved in with her. I suppose she was old, and maybe that's why they moved back, so they'd look after her. (But your father in his work, as I understand it. really travelled quite a bit. after the war, after he came back.) Yes, Well, after he came back, the first move. I think, was that he bought a sawmill. Himself, and my mother's brother. Un? cle Alex, who You know, whe mother's side Front row, from left: Evelyn's mother Christie Ann, and Evelyn's Aunt Christy. Back row, from left: Margaret, Annie Mae, Kenny, Evelyn, and Evelyn's father Sandy MacDermid. lived on the adjoining farm, re my grandparents on my were.... (Now, who was Christy?) Christy was my mother's sister, (And she had a job of some kind at Murray,) Oh yeah, did she ev? er. Those are the stories that I remember. She told us an awful lot of stories about Murray--things that went on at Murray. It was just like a--like a serial. Every night she'd have a new story for us. You know, happenings. And to us, that was as if she had worked in New York. 'Cause there was a lot of people at Murray then, and she'd tell us all kinds of stories about what went on. See, the stories she told us, it wouldn't have much bearing on maybe what you'd be interested in. They were simple stories about things that went on. (Try me. When would she tell you these stories?) Usually in the evenings. And she'd start the story by saying, "Tha cuimhn' agamsa 'nuair a bha mi 'g obair ann am Murray"--"! remember when I worked in Murray." And she'd go on from there. Once we heard her saying that. W'rld -wide. Working together we give you more flights to more cities in Atlantic Canada, across the country, and around the world. AirCanada JmirNava =

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