Newfoundland has a Piece of My Heart

I want to share my story but it will be more than one part because it is a little lengthy and I don’t want to leave anything out. My experiences in Newfoundland are like sweet, bitter, sweet and just in the last week a spark has reawakened my heart and I need to share especially now, during lockdown…

It was a cold day in December of 1996 but how sweet it was…

As I stepped off the plane I knew Newfoundland was the place where I would live my dream. The snow covered evergreens glistened with the sun and the rocks of magnificent colours had me captured. But the highlight was the moment my eyes caught the fierce but beautiful, mighty waves of the ocean, it was love at first sight and I was determined to make my dream come true. I would be two thousand miles away from family and I knew it was a big step, but with love there is no distance, so I took the big plunge and sold everything I had, except my car and some personal belongings. My daughter at the time was 19 and engaged and she was against it, but I knew she’d be fine and my eldest son was 21 out on his own, so I had no worries of him either. However one of my friends heard the news and came over to see me and warned me that God was not in it. I also met a woman who did the same and was left abandoned, struggling on her own, yet my heart wasn’t stirred. I guess looking back now they could have been warning signs but as the saying goes, love is blind and I think I was bitten by the bug. My love for the island overpowered my way of thinking and I felt in my heart I had to chance it and I would be fine. I was a single mom with my seven year old son to care for, but I had no fear of the future and I stepped out. Well in case you haven’t guessed it and still wondering, yup, I met a man from Newfoundland who had swept me off my feet. He was on a road trip in my part of the country for the summer that year and would be heading back. Well to make a long story short we started seeing each other and before you know it things got serious pretty quick. What can I say, he knew all the right things to say and he won my heart. But he also was a good buddy to my seven year old which was great. Well when the day came for him to go back to Newfoundland it was heartbreaking, but I still had one year of college left to go so I couldn’t leave with him. In the meantime we had a long distance relationship and a few months later in December I had a break from college. We talked about marriage and I knew it was a big step so I decided to visit the island of Newfoundland first to see if I liked it… and as you read already at the beginning of my story I stepped off the plane and there was no turning back… I was caught up in my little dream world and so excited for the future for my son and I. The summer of the following year 1997, the big day arrived. He flew down to meet us and drove my car back to Newfoundland. He had a nice place for us to live and I was excited, but something happened on the way that had me concerned. His attitude changed somewhat and he was in a not so nice frame of mind. Of course at first I excused him and thought he was just tired, but his attitude worsened as time went on. It was a long journey on the road and I sensed something was not right, I asked him what was wrong but he said he was fine. Well when we arrived he did have a nice place for us so I tried to make the most of it then one week later he shocked me when he told me there was someone else in his life…

To be Cont’d