From: "Evelyn" ewoudenberg@roadrunner.nf.net To: NFLD-LAB-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 12:13 AM Subject: TIDBIT INFO. OUTPORT HISTORY!! I can only wish that the following story could have been an excerpt transcribed from a well written Book by a person that witnessed and endured this tragic event, such as yours truly, amongst many other disastrous events. The countless lives of Men, Women and Children had been short lived due to disastrous events in which today's same tragedy could be prevented with ease, but fifty years ago, yes just fifty years ago, such a drastic event had taken it's toll in this small Community of Roddickton, the Great Northern Peninsula so many times, but despite the tragedies with the hurtful and unforgettable memories having to suppress it all and carry on as if nothing had happened. I can not imagine the pain and sorrow that must have been endured by these closely neighbouring people who knew everyone and felt like one big family. Anyone's loss were felt by all, even us as Children mourned the loss of our friends, their parents and close friends of our parents and grandparents, but they all congregated together, helped with the cooking, laundry, baby-sitting and kept a vigel by a deceased love one albeit a child or a gg grandparent. It did not matter because they all cared for each other as if it was their own family member and managed to pick up the pieces and start all over again. There were no local Newspaper, Telephones, Television or Radio Station in order to get a message passed on to a loved one that a person/persons died as such was the case with most of the Community's men that stayed miles away in the Logging Camps. Some instances their loved ones were already buried before they would receive the sad news. I remember well back to the age of eight years old. The Roberts family had very close ties with our family. The Winter of 1956 was a very harsh winter, but no matter how stormy the weather I still loved to walk during a storm. It certainly is a true statement used by many Newfoundlanders "you can't see your hand in front of your face" this day in particular was such a day. We attended School, morning Classes only and our Teachers advised us to huddle together and not stray from each other until we were all safe in our homes because we did not have such luxury as a Telephone, so all was done by chance and good luck, but our parents prayers came first at all times. The little Community {Roddickton} seemed to becoming engulfed with Winter's fury at a fast pace. We huddled together and seemed to love every drift of that snow in our young faces. We did arrive home in a hurry when our Mom came to meet us knowing that the storm would worsen throughout the day. We were allowed to play in the snow storm under the watchful eyes of our loving and caring Mother, but only underneath our kitchen window which measured approx. 8 ft. above ground and then upstairs Bed room windows measured approx. 6-7 ft. above the downstairs window which in total our house was approx. 14-15 ft. and possibly higher from the ground up {big two storey house} and by early morning the snow had piled up to the top Bed room windows. The high winds howled around our windows all night long and we missed our Dad so much, not being around to assure us and our Mom that all will be ok. Mom kept a vigel over the wood burning stove all night due to the high winds. My eldest sister slept in our parents bed that night in order to keep our youngest sister from crying for Our Mom. Mother yelled to us approx. 7 : a.m. to rise and shine because the storm had ceased and it was a beautiful silent sunny morning. Mom summoned our two brothers to dress warm and crawl out from their upstairs bed room window and somehow paddle their way through the high mounds of snow drifts and clear a passage way leading from our entrance door. Wow! snow was piled up over our kitchen window and We were loving every moment of digging our home out from underneath the snow drifts. Finally as we were sitting around the breakfast table our Dad's youngest brother came by to tell us a story that came very close to being our family. Our Mom's close friend, Mrs. Roberts had been lost and feared smothered in last nights terrible snow blizzard storm. I remember my Mom standing and moving away from the kitchen table and staring out the window and saying "why why why? that poor woman has eight children and no way to get this awlful news to her husband who was working in the woods, as we would call it. Suddenly Mom looks at my eldest sister and says "tell me again, what did you hear exactly last night?" Frankly my hair stood straight upon my head, just what did my sister hear last night I kept thinking. My sister proceeded to tell her story again and one could feel the hurt and another loss, although we did not know any details. My sister was awakened twice by a voice calling our Mom's name, but with the blustering sound of the wind howling around our home, the voice seemed to fade away. At first our Mom thought that my sister was dreaming, but she insisted thst some woman was calling out loud our Mom's name and that time frame was said to be approx. midnight to 2:00 a.m. Suddenly my Mom's first cousin rushed in our house telling Mom the same story about someone calling her name several times during the late hours of the night before. Apparently he could hear much clearly because he lived close to the frozen Harbour's edge. He became very startled and both him and his wife open their door and screamed a few times, but could only hear my Mom's name being called out in a faint and distant call, due to the wailing of the winds. Him and his wife went inside their home and needless to say that they did not get any sleep on that horrible eerie night. By noon time that day we did get the official word from Mrs. Roberts eldest daughter. Her Mom {Mrs. Roberts} left their home around noon the day before when she noticed that a severe snow storm was brewing and took a blanket to wrap around her youngest child who was attending grade one class, the same School that we all attended, but somehow the snow blizzard was so severe that she could not see or had any idea that she was so far off track from the old main road leading to the School house. Instead she pushed her way across the open frozen Bay where the storm was more fierce, but apparently it was her voice calling out to my Mom in that blinding snow storm. Although there were no signs of light from anywhere, she somehow sensed that she was walking in the direction of our home where she visited so many times. Not hearing or seeing any signs of anything but the loud raging snow storm, she continued to push her way through the darkness of that stormy night in search of her children and her home. Her children all came home together one hour after their Mom became so worried about them and left to walk and bring them home safely. A search party {mostly women} started fast as the news spread around that little town. Mrs. Roberts was found that afternoon huddled under a large heap of drifted snow far across the Bay from any sight of houses. A tiny piece of her red coat was the only evidence showing through the snow, just another reminder to the heart sick people that another precious life had been taken away from her beloved family and friends. Her body was frozen to the point that all of her remains had to be broken in order to fit her body in a home made wooden Casket. My Mom had a long grieving process over Mrs. Roberts and often talked about the good person she was and how she died trying to rescue her children from a severe winter storm, something we all take for granted today, knowing that our children can know in advance about such a storm and can rest in peace knowing that they will be issued a warning before an incident such as a storm and that the parents have no fear of such a tragic event happening nowadays. Thanks for reading my tidbit of real history about the small Community of Roddickton, winter of 1956 Evelyn