Mary Maude Laing was born in Carbonear in 1882 to John Laing and Elizabeth Clarke. In 1902, she married John William “Jack” Green of Venison Island, Labrador. Together the two settled in Carbonear and had 3 children: George “Maxi”, Hayward, and Maisie. They settled on family land near the railway track on Park Lane, on the south side. Their house was two storeys, but was said by many to have an extremely low ceiling, where a person taller than 5’8” would have to duck their head in between the floor joists in order to walk around. Mary lived in this house for the majority of her life. Her husband John had died and been buried in Labrador in 1942; thus Mary was left a widow. 

One day, whilst home alone, Mary was sitting in the kitchen. All of a sudden, a strange bright static orb appeared in the room through the ceiling and began to move around. The orb came and jumped up into Mary’s lap. In a fashion that was described as completely unfazed, Mary took her apron and flicked the orb out of her lap and onto the floor. The orb moved once again and had left the house through a closed door.

In 1983, after the death of Maxi Green in 1980, who owned the house, the house was demolished by his son-in-law, Gerard Griffin. As testified by those who were there, while hauling apart the house, a perfectly round hole with scorch marks around it, about the size of a pop can, was discovered on the back door that had been patched up.

What has been described here is a case of Ball Lightning, an extremely rare phenomenon that has no definite scientific cause, but has often been associated with thunderstorms. A similar event has been documented in Newfoundland and has been dubbed the “Bell Island Boom”, which occurred in 1978.

On that very same day, just 75 yards away, the house owned by Robert Fraize experienced a similar event. An electrical panel in the porch with glass screw-in fuses was destroyed. The fuses were reduced to a fine dust, the wires were scorched, and the surrounding wall was damaged. The large kitchen radio was also said to be split in two. This indicates that a very powerful force had also entered this house.

On another note, years before this, Jack and Mary’s house was struck by lightning while the family was in Labrador for the summer. The lightning caught the roof on fire, but the neighbours were quick to act and doused the fire in time to save the house. While demolishing the house in 1983, under cedar shingles, a massive burnt out section of the roof was discovered.