An Interview with Pat and Gerard Green

Pat and Gerard Green spoke to Rita Cornell, a volunteer with the North Lanark Historical Society about the loss of their sister Marie in the Almonte train wreck. The interview took place on June 14, 2013 at the North Lanark Regional Museum as part of the 2013 ‘Video Tour’ project. This project was developed by the North Lanark Historical Society to document the history of Mississippi Mills.

Pat and Gerard Green sitting at a table to the left of Rita Cornell, all older citizens.

Pat: “The local parish priest had taken Mother and Dad down to Almonte because they still had no word about Marie and there was a snowstorm, bad weather. They went down and I remember Gerard and I were in the kitchen with my Uncle Jack and after a while, another one of the priests came in, Father Hass, and I remember his words, very abrupt: ‘We’ve had word about Marie, she’s dead.’ (laughs) I guess we were crying, I don’t remember, we must have been. And then after that, I remember my neighbour came in and she immediately took down the Christmas tree and pulled it through the house, to the back, where my father had a workshop. And I thought, ‘Why is she doing that?’ and she says ‘You’re mother will not want to see this when she comes back.’ And I didn’t quite understand why she couldn’t, you know. After that, it’s a little blurred. I remember them coming – no, I don’t really remember them coming home. I remember the neighbours, my first cousins, lived in Cormack on a farm. In those days, they had the telephones where you rang a certain number for your farm or a certain number for another farm, and you’re not supposed to listen in but everybody did, that’s how they got the local gossip (someone laughs off camera). So that’s how the Forans, my father’s sister, how they found out about it. And they must have come down then. I don’t remember them coming down, but they must have been there. And then the next thing I remember – (asking Rita Cornell) should I just continue then?”

Rita: “Well, yes, if you want to, certainly, go ahead.”

Pat: “Well, the next thing – and Gerard, you can fill in remember.”

Gerard: “No, you’re doing fine.”

Pat: “And the next thing I remember is the coffin coming in because everybody was waked in their homes at that time and there was a lot of tears and, I remember that, crying. And Marie’s coffin was put in the living room and I remember everybody crying and I was crying but I wasn’t sure exactly why I was so sad, you know? And the next thing I remember is the smell of roses (shakes her head). I hate the smell of roses to this day because there was a lot of, you know because of the accident, being such a terrible accident and so many in the town, there were a lot of flowers. And Marie worked for the Woods Manufacturing Company in Ottawa or Hull, I don’t know, but they sent a lot of flowers. All roses. To this day, I don’t like the smell of roses, I associate it with funerals.”

Rita: “Yes, I can understand.”

Pat: “And I remember the tears. One morning, I went down, because there was always people there. But, I went to touch Marie’s head and I touched the back and there was nothing there, and I remember thinking ‘Oh, that’s awful, I wonder what happened to her brain,’ you know? But, you know, back then, 11 was very young for the times.”

Rita: “Yes, you didn’t have any understanding of death.”

Pat: “I didn’t understand-

Rita: -the process.”

Gerard: “I’ll give you a break if you’re getting tired of talking, if you want.”

Rita: “Well, I was just about to ask you, Gerard.”

Gerard:” Sure.”

Rita: “Usually, you don’t have the same recollections.”

Gerard: “Pretty much the same, except I was 8. I had just turned 8 that summer, so quite young. And, I do recall, as Pat said, our first knowledge of it was when the priest came in and he was a little more abrupt if I remember.”

Pat: “Quite abrupt.”

Gerard: “His first words were, ‘Marie is dead.’ (Pat Green starts to laugh) And, you know, talk about diplomacy or easing into it. And for a young boy, that stood out in my mind. Then, the next, I do recall taking the Christmas tree out. That impressed me as well (Pat Green nods her head in agreement), very much so, and they didn’t even stop to take the decorations off and that struck me, you know, why are they doing that, you know? Because death was something we were not familiar with, or I certainly, speaking for myself, although the war was on and people we knew, and the news of people being killed in war. But the first immediate thing of any death, that was the first for us, and didn’t really realize the significance of it.”