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AMAZING COINCIDENCES
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GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS
Amazing Coincidence No. 1
Brian Rees' Story
Brian Rees' Story
Brian Rees is the youngest of Sadie and Fred Rees' six children. Not long after the Wabana mines closed in 1966, the Rees family moved to St. John's. The older girls had already moved away to pursue their careers and, as the younger children finished their schooling, they too left home until they were eventually scattered across Canada and into the United States. Sadie and Fred's birthdays were on adjacent days; Sadie's on September 18th and Fred's on September 19th. Every year, they would celebrate their birthdays as one. The photo below is of Fred and Brian Rees, c.1968. The following is a rather ghost-like story of amazing coincidence that Brian told me in a phone call in June 2016.
Fred Rees died in 2001. In 2006, all the Rees siblings came from far and near to St. John's to celebrate their mother's birthday. They decided that they would all go to Bell Island the next day to visit their father's grave on his birthday. So they did that and spent some time in the cemetery, then toured around Bell Island seeing the sites and reminiscing about their childhood days on the Island. Their last stop was at Brian's house in Lance Cove for a cup of tea.
They were no sooner gathered there than the phone rang. This was a CBC Radio producer calling from St. John's. She was preparing a program to commemorate the torpedoing of iron ore carriers in the Tickle in September and November of 1942. She had found a tape recording in the CBC archives of a documentary done in 1953 in which Fred Rees had spoken about those events. She was wondering if Mr. Rees was still alive and if she could talk to him again, but she didn't know how to contact him, so she had phoned the Town Council office and spoken to Mayor Gary Gosine, who suggested she call Brian. Brian spoke to her for a few minutes, told her his father had died 5 years before, and then passed the phone to his mother. Without any pre-arrangement, the CBC producer played the short recording for Sadie. On the very day that she and her children had come together in the community where Fred was born to celebrate his birthday, she heard once again the voice of her deceased husband as it had been broadcast on the radio 53 years before.
They were no sooner gathered there than the phone rang. This was a CBC Radio producer calling from St. John's. She was preparing a program to commemorate the torpedoing of iron ore carriers in the Tickle in September and November of 1942. She had found a tape recording in the CBC archives of a documentary done in 1953 in which Fred Rees had spoken about those events. She was wondering if Mr. Rees was still alive and if she could talk to him again, but she didn't know how to contact him, so she had phoned the Town Council office and spoken to Mayor Gary Gosine, who suggested she call Brian. Brian spoke to her for a few minutes, told her his father had died 5 years before, and then passed the phone to his mother. Without any pre-arrangement, the CBC producer played the short recording for Sadie. On the very day that she and her children had come together in the community where Fred was born to celebrate his birthday, she heard once again the voice of her deceased husband as it had been broadcast on the radio 53 years before.
Amazing Coincidence No. 2
Gail Hussey-Weir's Story
Gail Hussey-Weir's Story
This is the story of an amazing coincidence that came to light at the funeral of my mother, Jessie Hussey. The photo below is of the interior of Jackson United Church decorated with the flowers for her funeral, October 21, 2013.
My mother died 3 days after her 89th birthday on Oct. 15, 2013 and was buried from Jackson United Church on Bell Island. The minister who presided over the service was Rev. Mary Harris. When my husband, Harvey, met her for the first time to discuss the funeral arrangements, she told him she was from Cambridge, ON, but, no, her family were not former Bell Islanders. However, she had married a former Bell Islander, Fred Harris. Fred was a teenager when he moved with his family to what was then Galt, now Cambridge, Ontario. Fred and Mary met there and married. Her work with the United Church took them to several charges in Ontario. When Fred was ready to retire, he wanted to move back to Newfoundland and that is how Mary came to be serving the Bell island-Portugal Cove pastoral charge. When Harvey returned from this meeting, he asked me if I knew Fred, but his name rang no bells and I thought no more of it at the time.
We went to Bell Island on Oct. 21st for Mom's funeral. Rev. Mary was very personable and relaxed and that put us all at ease on such a stressful occasion. As it turned out, her husband Fred was the male soloist for the service, and he did a fine job. Harvey read the eulogy, giving a brief account of Mom's life and speaking of my father, who had died in 1961 at the young age of 39. After the service, Harvey brought Fred over to meet me, saying he had a most amazing story to tell.
Fred said that when he'd first learned of Mom's death, he asked Mary who Mrs. Hussey's husband was. Dad's full name was in the obituary as "Arthur Stanley Hussey." Mary had no way of knowing that Dad always went by Stanley, and everyone knew him as "Stan," so she said the first name was "Arthur." Fred could not recall ever knowing anyone named "Art Hussey." It was only when Harvey was reading the eulogy and referred to Dad as "Stan Hussey" that the penny dropped and Fred suddenly realized that he did indeed know who he was.
Back in the 1950s, and right up till they left Bell Island in 1962, Fred's father had been heavily involved with Jackson United Church. There was always a problem getting an organist, so he had encouraged his son to learn to play, and thus Fred became the church organist, which involved playing for funerals. Now, here in 2013, at the funeral of Jessie Hussey, it all came flooding back to him: one of the last funerals he played for 52 years ago, shortly before he and his family left Bell Island, was Stan Hussey's, the very husband of the woman for whom he had just sung the solo and who was being buried that day! God certainly does work in mysterious ways.
Below left is a picture of Stan Hussey c. 1960, taken at Scotia No. 1 on what is now called Hussey Street. On the right is Jessie Hussey in 2005. You can read more of their story under "History" in the top menu, then "Women of Wabana" in the drop-down menu.
We went to Bell Island on Oct. 21st for Mom's funeral. Rev. Mary was very personable and relaxed and that put us all at ease on such a stressful occasion. As it turned out, her husband Fred was the male soloist for the service, and he did a fine job. Harvey read the eulogy, giving a brief account of Mom's life and speaking of my father, who had died in 1961 at the young age of 39. After the service, Harvey brought Fred over to meet me, saying he had a most amazing story to tell.
Fred said that when he'd first learned of Mom's death, he asked Mary who Mrs. Hussey's husband was. Dad's full name was in the obituary as "Arthur Stanley Hussey." Mary had no way of knowing that Dad always went by Stanley, and everyone knew him as "Stan," so she said the first name was "Arthur." Fred could not recall ever knowing anyone named "Art Hussey." It was only when Harvey was reading the eulogy and referred to Dad as "Stan Hussey" that the penny dropped and Fred suddenly realized that he did indeed know who he was.
Back in the 1950s, and right up till they left Bell Island in 1962, Fred's father had been heavily involved with Jackson United Church. There was always a problem getting an organist, so he had encouraged his son to learn to play, and thus Fred became the church organist, which involved playing for funerals. Now, here in 2013, at the funeral of Jessie Hussey, it all came flooding back to him: one of the last funerals he played for 52 years ago, shortly before he and his family left Bell Island, was Stan Hussey's, the very husband of the woman for whom he had just sung the solo and who was being buried that day! God certainly does work in mysterious ways.
Below left is a picture of Stan Hussey c. 1960, taken at Scotia No. 1 on what is now called Hussey Street. On the right is Jessie Hussey in 2005. You can read more of their story under "History" in the top menu, then "Women of Wabana" in the drop-down menu.
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Amazing Coincidence No. 3
Joan Marie Lavender's Story
Joan Marie Lavender's Story
Gail's Note: Beginning in 1925, each employee of the Wabana Mines was assigned a brass of 4 centimeters in diameter that had a number stamped on it that identified the employee, plus the name of the Company. There was a "check office" located at the entrance to each mine. In the check office, there were two large boards with finishing nails all over them and a number beneath each nail. Before each man entered the mines, he had to go through the check office, calling out his brass number as he went past the wicket. The Time Keeper inside wrote down each number as the men filed past. When all the men had gone down into the mines, the brasses with the numbers that had been recorded were moved from one board to the other. In that way, it was always known how many men were in the mines that shift and who they were. Sometimes, during the day, a timekeeper would go down into the mines and recheck to be sure. When the men came back up at the end of each shift, the operation was reversed. Some men took their own brass home after the mines closed down. Many of the brasses must have been left in the check offices because at some point after the mines closed, they began to show up, sometimes attached to key rings for sale in local shops, and sometimes in their original state, salvaged by individuals. They are now greatly prized as souvenirs of the mining days.
The following is a story of an amazing coincidence that Joan Marie Lavender told me via Facebook Messenger in February 2020 about how her father found his brass thousands of miles from home.
Joan's father, Raymond Robbins, had been working with DOSCO as an electrician since the 1940s. When it was announced on April 19, 1966 that the Wabana Mines would shut down for good on June 30, 1966, Ray decided not to wait until the final day to seek work elsewhere. He moved to Galt, ON, in May and immediately found permanent work at Canadian-General Tower Ltd. A lot of other former DOSCO workers from Bell Island also found employment with the same company. One day, one of these fellow Bell Islanders showed up at work with a jar full of brasses from the mines. Intrigued, Ray took out a handful and sifted through them, never thinking for a moment that his brass would be amongst them. Imagine his surprise when, thousands of miles from the ore mines of Wabana, he realized he was holding his own brass in his hand!
The following is a story of an amazing coincidence that Joan Marie Lavender told me via Facebook Messenger in February 2020 about how her father found his brass thousands of miles from home.
Joan's father, Raymond Robbins, had been working with DOSCO as an electrician since the 1940s. When it was announced on April 19, 1966 that the Wabana Mines would shut down for good on June 30, 1966, Ray decided not to wait until the final day to seek work elsewhere. He moved to Galt, ON, in May and immediately found permanent work at Canadian-General Tower Ltd. A lot of other former DOSCO workers from Bell Island also found employment with the same company. One day, one of these fellow Bell Islanders showed up at work with a jar full of brasses from the mines. Intrigued, Ray took out a handful and sifted through them, never thinking for a moment that his brass would be amongst them. Imagine his surprise when, thousands of miles from the ore mines of Wabana, he realized he was holding his own brass in his hand!
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Sometime after 1966 and thousands of miles from the Wabana Mines, Ray Robbins found his own brass, #4202, in a jar full of miners' brasses that a fellow Bell Islander had brought into their workplace at Canadian-General Tower Ltd. in Galt, ON. Ray passed the brass on to his grandson, Tim. |
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Amazing Coincidence No. 4
The Eaneas Rees Story
The Eaneas Rees Story
Eaneas Rees (1890-1933) was born Lance Cove, Bell Island, June 14, 1890 to Anne (Normore, c.1863-1936, great-granddaughter of Gregory & Catherine Normore) and Edward Rees (c.1858-1933), a farmer. After gaining machine shop experience with the Wabana Mines, he worked on the SS Argyle as Second Engineer. In 1913, he went to Montreal, where he was employed by Dominion Bridge Company before going to work for the Vickers Company, a branch of the Vickers-Vimy firm. He enlisted in the Royal Montreal Regiment on September 23, 1914, shortly after World War I broke out. A week later, his Regiment set sail for Portsmouth, England, joining a convoy of 33 ships that included the Florizel, carrying the Newfoundland Regiment Blue Puttees.
Following training on Salisbury Plain, he was enroute to France in February 1915 when his ship was torpedoed. Luckily, all were saved and made it to land. He went into action at Neuf Chatel, then Flow Bay, and Armentieres. At Ypres, he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans. Eaneas remained a Prisoner of War for three long years until the war ended. During those cruel years of hard labour and harsh treatment, he made five valiant attempts to escape captivity. The story of his war years in German prison camps was published in The Newfoundland Magazine, V. 4, No. 3, December 1920, pp. 28, 30-31. (You can read the full story on the "People" page of this website. Click "People" in the top menu, then scroll down to "R.")
On returning to Newfoundland, he married Flora Bartlett of North River, Conception Bay, on October 29, 1919, and settled in St. John's, where he worked as a machinist at Consolidated Foundry. They had three sons and a daughter. Eaneas died at the Grace Hospital on July 18, 1933 at the relatively young age of 43. But history was to repeat itself...
When WWII started, Eaneas' eldest son, Douglas Bartlett Rees (1921-2019), joined the Royal Rifles of Canada (C Force). His regiment was deployed to Hong Kong. Not long afterwards, he was captured by the Japanese and spent four years in a Prisoner of War camp.
Following training on Salisbury Plain, he was enroute to France in February 1915 when his ship was torpedoed. Luckily, all were saved and made it to land. He went into action at Neuf Chatel, then Flow Bay, and Armentieres. At Ypres, he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans. Eaneas remained a Prisoner of War for three long years until the war ended. During those cruel years of hard labour and harsh treatment, he made five valiant attempts to escape captivity. The story of his war years in German prison camps was published in The Newfoundland Magazine, V. 4, No. 3, December 1920, pp. 28, 30-31. (You can read the full story on the "People" page of this website. Click "People" in the top menu, then scroll down to "R.")
On returning to Newfoundland, he married Flora Bartlett of North River, Conception Bay, on October 29, 1919, and settled in St. John's, where he worked as a machinist at Consolidated Foundry. They had three sons and a daughter. Eaneas died at the Grace Hospital on July 18, 1933 at the relatively young age of 43. But history was to repeat itself...
When WWII started, Eaneas' eldest son, Douglas Bartlett Rees (1921-2019), joined the Royal Rifles of Canada (C Force). His regiment was deployed to Hong Kong. Not long afterwards, he was captured by the Japanese and spent four years in a Prisoner of War camp.