Aunt Emily Falls In

Myrtle Morris

Myrtle Morris grew up on Spotted Island, Labrador. In the winter months people on the island moved to the mainland to be near wood and shelter. Here is one of her recollections of life on Spotted Island.

AUNT EMILY CLARK, my mother's sister, was going across Domino Run, in the spring. They were going over to Spotted Island, shifting out in the spring of the year. It was late when they came out. The old run used to break through and open up, whenever we used to get a bit of a sea. When the dogs heard the ice cracking they scattered. Some of them turned back. The children were in the coachie box, and there was Aunt Emily, hanging fast to the end, and she went down in clear water.

Her brother, Uncle Alec was driving. He lost sight of her, but he couldn't let the komatik go because it was tipping out to the clear drop of water with the children in the box. The children would have fallen out in the water.

When Aunt Emily would come up, she'd break the surface and she'd blow. Uncle Alec told her to catch the traces under the komatik. She caught one and the trace she caught belonged to his leader. When he bawled at that dog to go, it whipped her right out of the water. Here she was, on a piece of ice then, and she was hanging fast to the box. He finally got her straightened up.

With her help they uprighted the komatik and the dogs started to move. But that was only taking off from shore. Then they got out on the middle. They didn't know what time that the ice was going to break up. They might have gone on to the bottom, but anyway, they got across.

That was really a narrow escape. Poor Aunt Emily! She was some cold when she got over to the island, I tell you. There have been so many people who fell in the water in that old run, but there never was anybody drowned there yet. And I suppose there's more pots and pans and guns and axes down in that run. With people shifting out in the spring or going up in the winter, there were some hard scrapes out in the tickle.