Read Online Newfoundland Stories by Eldon Drodge - Free Book Online Page A

“It must be bad enough with one cripple in the boat,” he scoffed. “Why would you want another?”
    Cecil’s story was similar to John’s. He, too, had come home an amputee, without his right leg. He also had the additional misfortune of losing his right arm in the war as well. Like John, he had become depressed and had withdrawn from all aspects of life in the community.
    â€œI don’t care, you’re coming out with me tomorrow,” John persisted, and Cecil, despite his protestations, found himself perched on the front thwart of the boat the next morning, propelled there by the sheer force of John’s will. Cecil, there against his wishes, refused to participate in that day’s fishing in any way and did not speak even once during the entire time. He wanted to put a firm end to the whole business before it advanced much further. John, however, was at his door again early the following morning and the scene of the previous day was replayed in its entirety: John insisting and Cecil resisting. In the end, however, Cecil found himself once again in John’s boat. When John returned the third morning, he found Cecil waiting outside for him, sitting on his wooden lunch bucket with a set of oilskins slung across his shoulder.
    Thus was born a partnership that would last for almost forty years. The people of the settlement would never cease to marvel at the sight of these two men, an amputee and a double amputee, clumping their way to their boat in the early morning hours and returning several hours later to clean and store their catch before once again clumping back to their homes for the night. Together, with only two legs and three arms between them, they braved the cold sea every morning in all weathers, and managed a degree of success. Cecil built up enormous strength in his one arm and provided the power and leverage, as well as the companionship, that John had sought. The two were shining examples for others in the community, who, when faced with hardships and adversity of their own, had only to think of John and Cecil, and their own problems would often seem minuscule in comparison.
    In 1968, fifty years after the Great War, the community decided that they wanted to honour their three war heroes while there was still time, for few veterans of World War I were still living. In other settlements all around Newfoundland soldiers had returned home after the war to try to resume their normal lives. Some came back so maimed and disfigured physically or emotionally they couldn’t cope, and lived out their days in pain and misery. Others could never surmount the horrors they had known at Beaumont Hamel and were never again the same men they once were. Still others, however, were able, somehow, to put the war behind them and get on with their occupations and the raising of their families. Elijah, John, and Cecil could be counted in this group. In the fullness of time, these three young men, each in his own unique way, transcended their tragic circumstances and enriched their community and the lives of the people in it and touched the hearts and souls of generations.
    It was a cold frosty evening in mid-February when John and Cecil, along with Elijah, all three of them now old and frail, sat in the front of the building that served as the settlement’s meeting hall, feeling slightly ill at ease as they looked at the expectant faces staring back at them. The four generations comprising the settlement’s population were present, and every person there, from the oldest to the very youngest, knew the stories of the men they were paying homage to; love and respect for the three heroes were evident in the faces of everyone in attendance.
    Elijah took the proceedings in stride, as did John and Cecil. The thunder still sometimes roared in his head, but it no longer overwhelmed him and he was able to push it aside and focus on other aspects of living. John’s missing leg still ached