Connections to the Halifax Explosion

The Halifax Explosion is of particular importance to me because I have direct family connections to this event.  Both of my parents were born and raised along the very rural Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia.  Of their parents, I had two Grandmothers and two Grandfathers to whom I was very close.  I was also very lucky to have a Great-Grandmother in my life for a relatively short time.  Note: ALL of the Grandparents in my life were great, but this Great-Grandmother deserves the formal title as she was the Mother of my Mother's Mother.  

Of my Grandparents that were alive during the Explosion, my maternal Grandfather, Edson,  who lived about 100 kilometers from Halifax, recounted hearing the boom of the explosion while outside at the shore, readying a boat to go out fishing with his family.  My paternal Grandmother, Anna, was in school at the time of the Halifax Explosion.  She recounted stories of how, since the explosion happened during the war, the school teacher thought that the area was being bombed.  Apparently, the teacher took all of the students outside of the school house to hide in the woods.  Unfortunately, that decision almost resulted in another tragedy as the teacher got herself & the students terribly lost in the nearby woods.  Fortunately, a search party was able to rescue all before anyone perished.  However, it was my one Great-Grandmother that I got to know - My Nana Ruth's mother Louisa who was alive and physically closest to the actual explosion site.  

Nannie (nee Newcombe nee Gerard) Eisan  as I knew her, was a newlywed living in Halifax City with her husband & their infant son when the explosion happened.  Apparently, as the family story goes, my Great-Grandmother was bathing her infant son (my as yet unborn Nana Ruth's older brother) at the time of the horrific explosion.  From where she lived, near the Halifax Commons, all my Great-Grandmother could do was lean over her son to try to shield him, and herself, from the firestorm of flying glass. Somehow, my Great-Grandmother's family (including her husband who worked in the dockyard) all survived the actual explosion. Many were not that lucky.  

Unfortunately, although he survived the actual explosion, my Great-Grandmother's husband died very young the next year after the explosion.  Although his death was initially attributed to the Spanish Influenza, it is also likely that his early death was also contributed to by collateral lung damage from being on the dockyards at the time of the explosion.  The tragedy of the Halifax Explosion physically changed Nova Scotia's landscape, but it also changed the faces & character of families throughout the province & beyond with untold losses of generations of families and communities, as was the case with my family.  

After the Halifax Explosion & the untimely loss of her husband, my Great-Grandmother Louisa moved back to her rural roots along Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore.  She ultimately took a job serving as a housekeeper for a local elderly gentleman, Mr. Eisan.  Despite their age difference, the two eventually married, and my Nana Ruth (nee Eisan) Stevens was one of the children that came to be on account of the relocation marriage of my Great-Grandmother.  My mother - the youngest daughter of Ruth & Edson Stevens & also myself - would actually not be alive if it were not for the family changes invoked from the Halifax Explosion.  

The learning that came from the tragedy of the Halifax Explosion changed not only our city, province, and region, but also our country & our world.  Hopefully the learnings will ensure such a tragedy never happens again.  As we continue to commemorate this tragic event beyond the centennial rememberance having happened in 2017 - there have now been over 100 years of learning, love & hope stemming from this tragic event.  On these memorial occasions - as on Rememberance day - it is important to take time to remember all those now not here.  As the years pass, there are less and less survivors with direct known connections to the actual Halifax Explosion event.  This decline will continue.  Most of the relatives I knew with direct connections to the explosion have since died and I am no longer able to hear any of their voices or any of their stories.  But writing this, I know I have been extremely lucky - extremely lucky to have multiple levels of generational influences in my life, & not everyone gets that chance.  

I am only alive on account of the exponential efforts of hope & survival that brought me to here, today.  Today, now, here, writing this - please remember that we all have important stories to share - the stories just come from different places & take different forms.  We are all are survivors of life who are alive, here, now  - living & learning & playing & working & sharing lessons from our collective passed, paths & past.  As a lifelong learner, teacher, apprentice & journeyperson of life, I feel the imperative and the importance of continuing to share our collective stories of learning, hope & survival to help ensure the mistakes of yesterday are not repeated, & ensure that stories of love are not lost.