Family Stories of Water
Water 1)
Personal Experience
In November 2005, I went on an extended school field trip called “Nature’s Classroom” to Silver Bay YMCA at Lake George, New York. I was staying with a few friends in a corner suite in the notoriously haunted Paine Hall, and the Lake was so close that I believe that we could see it from our windows. The first night, a dark figure appeared behind the bed of my friend sleeping closest to the door. For about three hours, I watched this figure in a long black cloak and a long hood pulled over its face pace back and forth behind her bed. The figure was about 4 feet tall and floating one or two feet off the ground, and no one else could see it.
This intense haunting, so close to a major body of water, inspired me to continue looking for the pattern of hauntings near water. This story inspired me to continue looking for a link between water and Spirit. It did not help me directly answer my thesis question, however it added to a wealth of evidence gleaned from personal experiences.
Water 2)
Family Story-Grandpa Sherm
As a child, I loved hearing stories that my Grandpa Sherm told me about our family after they immigrated to Minnesota and North Dakota in the 19th century. The most abundant form of water in his stories came as snow. My Grandpa told me one time about a horrible white out blizzard that struck a family farm out in the isolated plains, and his Uncle went outside to check on his animals. He didn’t think to tie a rope to the house, but this foresight could have saved him. The white out was so bad that he got lost and froze to death only 100 meters from his house. Water was always presented to me as an element that required the utmost respect. Water gave life, and water could easily take away life. This story didn’t directly answer my thesis question, but it gave me further familial insight into the deadly forces of water.
Water 3)
Interview with Grandpa Tom
In relation to water, we discussed Cape Cod, and specifically Longnook Beach. My Grandpa told me about how both his parents loved Cape Cod and especially the Pamet Valley where Longnook Beach is. Grandpa Tom took his parents ashes to spread at Longnook. This interview influenced the imagery used in my videos, and I added scenes of Cape Cod to the layers. These family stories relating to water acted as a Portal for me to access my Ancestors. I asked my Grandfather many questions about his mother, Betty (Milne) Gagné, who I met as a baby but don’t have memories of. Through my interview with my Grandfather I developed a deeper sense of who she was as a person and he told me, to my delight, that we would have gotten along very well together.
Water 4)
Interview with Dad
My Dad told stories about his childhood going to Nonnie and Boppyie’s house (his grandparents), and the well in their backyard in Pittsfield. My Dad was telling the story of sending his cousin Wendy down the well in a bucket and recollecting that she may have gotten stuck down the well.
“And there was a well, there was a well out back at her house too, crank a bucket down. Don’t go down the well. Nonnie would talk about the well, oh I don’t know. The mysteries about the well, about don’t go down the well.”
This interview inspired much of the narrative and imagery in the video Down the Well. Audio excerpts from the interview included my Dad also mentioning Nonnie’s stories about the unseen world, “Nonnie would talk about mermaids and stuff like that, fairies. Sometimes she went to the dark place.”
Water 5)
Family Story-奶奶 Yuhuan
奶奶 Yuhuan told me the story of her first husband, who died very suddenly of a heart attack in his 40s when they lived in Beijing with their teenage son, Alex. 奶奶 said her husband’s heart attack happened while he was at work and that by the time they called her, he had already passed. 奶奶 took Alex back home to their family in a village outside of Harbin to decide what to do next, and 奶奶 consulted the village fortune teller. The fortune teller said that Alex’s Father’s Ancestors were angry and that’s why they had taken his father’s life so young. The fortune teller said that to keep Alex safe, 奶奶 would need to send him across not only mountains but the Ocean so that the angry Ancestors could not follow So, Alex was sent to New Zealand as soon as 奶奶 could arrange for him to continue school there. Alex stayed for two decades before it was decided that he was safe to return home to China. This influenced my questions about how our physical world specifically water can have rules for the Spirits who interact here and how water may act as a boundary for the Spirit World.
Family Story of Water 6)
Interview with my Great Aunt Megan
During the interview Aunt Megan talks about moving to Chile in 1965 and what she learned during her time there about US intervention. In the video Pledge Allegiance, Aunt Megan tells me about her experience in Chile with the local history of US aggression.
“Everyone down there knew that the CIA had the president-the democratically elected president of Chile assassinated. And so, he [the president of Chile] was assassinated. I never thought that America was this great, wonderful country, I’m embarrassed by it now, I’m embarrassed.”
Aunt Megan explains the source of the conflict with Chile that led the US through the CIA to assassinate was water and boats. Megan says, “Because the United States wanted United States boats to carry things from Chile to other country, and Chile wanted to use their own boats.” This audio was used in my video Pledge Allegiance.