Leaving our lives behind while the chaos continues

We had left the old house in Black River Bridge long before it was torched and burned to the ground. We had moved to town — Chatham — as our fates unfolded and eventually, moved away from the Miramichi. Life had become chaotic and if we ever thought of going back to clear the house out, I have no memory of that.

I'm pretty sure it had been thoroughly vandalized and stripped of anything interesting long before it burned so perhaps on some level, we were simply avoiding the pain of returning.

The house was anything but secure all the time we lived there. If anyone had been inclined, they could have walked in and taken whatever they fancied but as long as we were there, people respected the laws around private property and everything remained intact.

It was many years later that I began to remember some of the things that had been left behind and were now gone forever.

We had a radio very much like this one which had come from my parents' home. (I borrowed this photo from the Internet.) It's the radio I described here when I reminisced about many of the classic radio shows of my childhood and youth. I regret the loss of the radio although, to be honest, how can you drag something like that around with you through decades of moving? And if I had it today, what would I be doing with it except wondering what was going to become of it when we want to empty our house and downsize?

It's probably worth a lot of money to someone today though so I guess I could sell it.

One thing that I think of every now and then is a lovely little Japanese cruet set. I don't have a photo of it but it was exactly like this, slightly different colours:

It was for oil and vinegar, salt and pepper, and mustard. You may remember how much I like mustard so imagine how happy I was to have a little pot with a tiny china spoon whose only function was to hold the mustard.

I lost several things that were of sentimental value from my nursing days. All my textbooks were there in the house.

(generic photo)

I can't imagine that I'd ever use them again and I don't know what I would have done with them but they meant a lot to me. They were, for textbooks, quite gorgeous books with hard covers, coloured photos, glossy pages. Maybe I could have sold them too!

The other mementos from the Montreal General Hospital that I lost were my pins:

bar pin

graduation pin

back pin

The pins were in a little jewelry box along with my name-tag pin. I would have had them with me as they would have been easy to carry around as I moved from place to place but years later, I was the victim of an armed robbery in my home and all my jewelry — including Mum's engagement and wedding rings and other pieces that had great sentimental value — disappeared. My nursing pins would certainly have met the same fate.

(I wrote about the life-changing experience of that robbery in a five-part series: Part one; Part two; Part three; Part four; Part five.)

Another small thing that I think of are the little trophies I won for my acting performances at Chatham High School.

I had acted in the drama festival plays in both grade 11 and grade 12. The grade 11 play was directed by a teacher who was only there one or two years. Her name might have been Mrs. Watling although I'm not sure. My co-star was my dear late friend, Walter Brown. The play was Rise and Shine by Elda Cadogan.

Years later, when David Cadogan came to town and hired me to work at the Miramichi Press, it was a connection we didn't know we had. Elda was his Mom and her play was — and remains — the most-produced one-act-play in our country. I played Hephzibah Mercy Jones. It's a sweet play and one of my favourite parts was when Walter sang to me, If You Were the Only Girl in the World. It was quite romantic.

The following year, the play was much different. It was a tragedy — dramatic and shocking. Still Stands the House was written by Canadian Gwen Pharis Ringwood and it was directed by Mrs. Ernestine MacKnight.

This photo is from my high school yearbook. I'm standing, in the centre. Joan Crawford is seated on the left, Richard Brieze on the right. I wanted Joan's part — it seemed a much meatier role to me — but Mrs. MacKnight rightly told me that I wasn't right for the part. Hester was tall and dark and angular, not my physical type at all. Joan was wonderful in the part and the adjudicator liked both of us but I guess it was my year.

People are often asked, what would you grab and take with you if you had to evacuate your house suddenly in the event of a fire or a flood or some other catastrophe? I look around me today and I have no idea. It's a good thing I have no idea because there's nothing in my house that's easily grabbed and carried off. It's a very different time, isn't it? We live so differently. Most people don't have to worry about photos and letters — as long as you have your passwords, you'll find them.

Losing those things in the fire didn't make a difference to my life. I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about them. I have enjoyed remembering them today and telling you about them. Maybe that's the best we can expect from all the little possessions of our lives.