Friday, September 27, 2013

A Sunday Drive - Part 1 - Harbour Main

Coming down Flynn's Hill Road, May 2013

 


It had been quite some time since I had been back home to Newfoundland, twenty six years to be exact.  Responsibilities and commitments took priority over the years, interfering with taking a long trip home, to Lakeview, Harbour Main.  
 
I knew we were getting close, I sensed the familiarity of the surroundings. I  anticipated that the hill was just around each little bay we would approach.  "We're coming up to it now!, we are getting close!", I would insist. "No, not yet!",  my cousin Wayne would
respond.                                                               
 
We came around a bend and started down a hill, then my cousin announced, "Here it is!"  Quickly we passed Grand Dad and Nan's old house, first the barn and then the house, just like that!                      
 
It caught me by surprise!, as I tried to take it all in.  It was not quite as I remembered.




Grand Dad's Barn as it is, in 2013, built 1920
                                                                            
The barn was faded an ashen grey, and you could see slight remnants of red stain from the last time it had been painted many years ago.  It blended in with the nearby trees, making it hardly visible to see from the road. 

The wood-wire fence that defined the meadow space was completely gone and the meadow itself was now overgrown with brush, trees and weeds.

The house my grandfather had built still stood, with the Mountain Ash Tree I remembered, by it's side.  The house looked tired and worn as the years of time had taken it's toll.

But, the great hill behind my grandparents house stood tall and grand, and green, with magnificent Spruce and Fir trees lining it's ridges and covering its trails that once were used to get to the top.

I didn't expect things to be the same, for all things change with time.
But there is something special about this place for me, for it holds two hundred years of Flynn Family History, of memories and stories, of life and death.


My Grandparents House 2013 in Lakeview, Harbour Main

We continued down the road to get reacquainted with the area for when I would return later in my visit.
This was my first day in Newfoundland, I had family to see, research to conduct, and sights to see.
It felt good to be back home.


                                                                                                                       Elaine