In September l asked my granddaughter's teacher if we could take her out of school for two weeks to go to a wedding in Newfoundland. Her answer was, "it would be a great experience for her." Little did we know Hurricane Igor would be visiting the island at the same time.

The groom's parents were driving to the island from Fort McMurray and picked us up in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Cal and Jackie Sceviour were in a hurry to get to their son, Eric's wedding on Sept. 25th in Burgoyne's Cove. The first part of the trip went smoothly, we did not know a hurricane was approaching till our stopover at our daughter's house in Nova Scotia. Her husband phoned with the news so we departed for the ferry promptly. I hoped for my stomach's sake that it wouldn't be a wild ride over; however the trip was smooth and we never hit rain till we passed Corner Brook. Road crews were having some flooding outside of Badger and by the time we reached Gander roads were closed.

Even though we were stuck for two days we didn't just sit and wait. We drove down to Sandy Cove and Eastport with our granddaughter. We could not get to Salvage as the road was washed out, but we doubled back and had a delicous meal at Rosies. The next day we did the Gander Bay Loop as Joey's Lookout had closed that morning. The park was open by the time we approached and our aim was to get to Clareville and see what awaited us there. Through phone calls from family we learned that the truck would have to be left at Cal's sister Yvonne's in Randon Heights and we would ride to Burgoynes Cove on a long liner owned by Dennis Miller and son. His boat was the only way in or out and without their help over the coming days the wedding would never have gone on.

We arrived in Burgoynes Cove at about 1:30 a.m. and friends and family were waiting for us on the beach with a bonfire going. Everyone formed a line on the wharf and passed our possessions to waiting cars.

The next day everyone agreed that the wedding would have to be delayed till the next weekend, except for the poor bride to be, Holly Miller, who ran from house to house trying to convince everyone it could. Finally Holly got people to listen and everyone rushed to prepare for the 25th. Ladies needing their hair done caught the boat up at 5:30a.m. The minister and wife caught the boat back. A liquor run was made over to Petley on Random Island. Local men worked hard making make-shift bridges to gap the washouts and anyone with a quad or vehicle in between washouts volunteered to move wedding guests to and from the wedding site. Eric and Holly were being married in an open field under an apple tree in Hodders Cove. This land had belonged to family for generations.

While the day was cloudy, rain held off and everything went off without a hitch. Relatives from Petley came over on boat except for ones working on road repairs. The supper and dance was well attended with only about 15 people missing the event. Two family members from Toronto were also screeched in.

Some people might thing Hugo was all a disaster, but Holly and Eric had a wedding they will never forget. No one really felt isolated by the washouts and needless to say my granddaughter had a trip of a lifetime. She even did well fishing over the next few days.   Submitted By: Jean Way