========LIFE-THREATENING WINTER STORMS--common to places like Bell Island, Newfoundland, www.bellisland.net ========

THE COLD AND STORMY DAY I ALMOST MET THE GRIM REAPER

It was not the first time that I had come close to meeting the Grim reaper.

Bell Island, in those days had just one medical doctor who was an over-worked GP, who needed help. There was no hospital with specialists, no surgeons and the like, armed with modern technology and antibiotics, available to serve the 10,000 people made up of the families belonging to the iron-ore miners (2,100 underground).

Bell Island was no place to expect to get the best of health care.

MY EARLY NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE (NDE)
The story I got from my older siblings is this: "When you were around two or three, you became so seriously ill with rickets--lack of vitamins D and other nutrients--that you could not walk for over a year."

I also remember being feverish and outside my body--a rather pleasant experience at the time. Dying? Who knows! I was later told that, "lots of cod liver oil, for which you developed a taste, helped you fully recover."

I strongly feel it also helped me deal with and fend off TB--as tests later showed that I have it and am immune, currently.

But the NDE that I vividly remember really happened, was not long after a winter thaw--a common annual occurrence on the south coast of Newfoundland. The thaw had left a thin layer of crusty snow on the hills around. It also left great patches of good ice all over the meadows --great for sledding onto from the gentle hills around the patches.

Patches of ice in the larger areas are always great for skating, especially for shinny (hockey, using a ball, or a puck, without refs.) Not able to afford the kind of skates all the kids have today, my first skates, at 4, were just skates that, with screws, could be put on to any old leather boots we happened to own.

It was, as I recall, in February or March of 1935---a few months before our mother, Maud, after a long struggle with TB, died.

The day, in which I almost met the grim reaper in one such storm, started off as a clear and sunny winter's day, with lots of good ice and snow in meadows to the west of us, just waiting for any children around looking to come and have fun. I was hoping to spend at least the afternoon, sledding and skating, with a friend or more.

Being mid-winter, this meant miners went to work in the dark, and sadly for low wages, came home in the dark. What a life! SUNDAY was the only holiday, with the family, for people living on Bell Island in the 1930s
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Beginning in 1933, thanks to some new contracts made with, of all places, NAZI Germany--then the home of national socialism and getting ready for World War II--the iron-ore miners of Bell Island--unlike many places during the Depression--got the "opportunity"--if we can call it that--to work ten hours a day for six days a week.

Ironically, the same NAZI Germany no doubt used some of the same ore to build weapons--that is, subs and torpedoes, etc. With these, in mid-1942, they came to Conception bay, attack our loading piers, sink four iron-ore carriers and killed 69 merchant seamen.



THE DAY OF THE STORM GOT TRICKY

Just before noon hour, I told my older sister, Elvia--who spent most of her time looking after our very-ill mother, Maud, who was now confined to her room--where I was going and I asked for her permission. And there being lot of good snow on the ground, and no storm in sight, I decided to go sledding, alone, or with some friends I may find.

Be AWARE, in those days few people had radios--a new one cost well over a months pay for the average worker. With no radio--we finally did get one in 1936--we had no warning of the storm of which I write.

Elvia said: "OK, I will get you some food to eat now, and some to take with you. Father and Bill are at work in the iron ore mines. They will not be home until just around dark--when the lights come on, around 6:00 PM. By then the lights will be on. Watch for them.
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[Miners who lived in and paid rent for the Company built houses--today, most such houses would be called un-insulated summer shacks--did have the use of basic electricity--for lights and radio, only, from dusk until dawn.

All other heat needs--no electric kettles, or stoves available could be used--had to come form coal-burning stoves. Of course, people had to buy coal from the Company Store.

BTW, Elvia also told me to watch for Rec and Ern--They are out helping a friend fix his boat. They said they would be back around the same time--lights-on time.

Ern was my next oldest brother--at 15 he was 10 years older than I was. Rec was, maybe 18 years my senior. Elvia was the next. And then came Bill.

Later, on my way to have some fun, I met a friend in the area, we travelled quite a distance to the hills at the edge of the island. They were, north west and quite a distance from our homes and others houses--a vast and vacant area--not far from the cove where Ern and Rec were helping a friend.

As long as it was sunny and clear, we had great fun!

However, by the late and mid-afternoon, as I recall, the weather began to change, suddenly, for the worse. My friend took off for his house not far from there.

"See you tomorrow, if it is not stormy ..." he shouted

Then I took off to try and find my way home. I knew I was at least more than an hour away. Over the next hour, the storm got worse and worse. And the wind became dangerously cold. And I got totally lost.

Meanwhile, it had become--just like in the old story--a "dark and stormy night" and I was lost in it.

The only thing that came to my mind was: THINK & USE YOUR IMAGINATION!

THERE WAS A REPEAT: THINK & USE YOUR IMAGINATION!

SUDDENLY, what my sister had said to me came to me: "LOOK FOR THE LIGHTS." as I told your brothers TO DO.
 I thought of the last hill, on which my friend and I had so much fun. I found it easily, As I started to walk I could feel the slope of the hill ... so up and up I went ... eventually at the top of the hill, I was surprised to find the snow was not as heavy as it had been. Then I turned and looked back at my friends place and SURE ENOUGH--THE LIGHTS WERE ON.

Now I knew the approximate direction of the houses where our house was located--near what is still called KINGS HILL. And MANY LIGHTS WERE ON.

It was a long walk, but I kept the many lights in view, until I finally got to the fence gate--BTW, in Newfoundland, fences in those days were used, not to keep animals in, but mostly to keep roaming animals out. You see, by common law, horses, cows and goats were allowed to roam and feed, freely.

When I finally got to the gate--I STARTED to YELL as loud as I could--hoping that my father and/or one of my brothers (who I assumed had come home when they saw LIGHTS ON)... I was hoping that at least one of them, would hear me ... my hands were so stiff and so frozen that I could not use them to open the latch.

SUDDENLY! OUT the darkness, two ominous figures making strange noises, grabbed me. Then they tossed me, over the fence into a pile of snow.

"WELL!" to myself, I said, "that was a relief."

By the time I got on my feet ... I realized that the ominous figures were actually my brothers, having fun ... and my father?... from house to gate, was a long walkway ... was on his way.

When he got to me, the first thing that he did was this: He took off my frozen mits, put them in his pocket and gently grabbed both my hands, put them in his warm fur-like cap and placed them on his warm head.

WOW! AT FIRST, the PAIN was AWFUL!!! ... followed by a glorious warmth and relief, especially when I heard the GOOD news: NO permanent frost bite!

LIGHT & WARMTH OVERCAME THE DARKNESS

Looking back I see and feel there was a Great Omni Dazzlement --light and warmness.
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G~Õ~D forget the BB! and Think of a Great-Omni-Dazzlement! of that which Generates Organizes & Delivers all that is good, optimistic and desirable.

Last edited by Revlgking; 04/22/14 03:32 AM. Reason: Always helpful
G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org