One of the main reasons I started writing down a few stories was the sense of loss I felt when Nickley died, in the spring of 1991. I realized then that the strong links of culture, custom, and language that bound us to our ancestors were slipping away. .. At the age of 16 or so, I trudged hundreds of miles behind Nickley, over barren and mish, and up and down river. I can still hear his voice at sunset, singing the old Mi kmaw hymns while chopping wood, making moulds, or showing me how he could sculp an otter with his old razor sharp breadknife. You could always tell Nickley from a distance because of his way of walking two steps and then running ways. He was quick to laugh-big bursts of laughter that echoed across the hills. John Nick Jeddore s richly detailed memoir begins when he was a boy in the 1920s and 1930s. His historical account makes a major contribution to our understanding of life on the country and in Conne River, Bay D Espoir, as well as what it was like to be confined to a tuberculosis sanatorium and to serve overseas in the Forestry Service during WWII. John Nick recounts a lifetime of following in his ancestors footsteps and reflects on his attempts to reconcile that heritage with a changing social and cultural world. His book will serve as an important legacy for many generations of scholars and general readers.
