I would like to talk about an incident that happened around the time I was 10 years old. Mom owned a small house that was adjacent to the house that I grew up in on New Pennywell Road, St. John's, NL. This house was rented to the Anstey family, Albert and Lorraine Anstey. Mr. and Mrs. Anstey had three boys, Albert Jr., Kenneth and ?. Kenneth and ? were twins, about two years of age. One of the twins, I think Kenneth, fell down in the well that was situated in the crawlspace underneath the house. His twin brother came running to Mrs. Anstey yelling, "Kenneth has fell in the well." His mother came screaming from the house. Mom went out to see what the commotion was all about. I followed closely behind. Mom ran to the well. The well was about 10 feet deep. Mom fell to her knees and bent as far as she could into the well. When she put her hand into the water, she felt Kenneth's hair and pulled him out of the water. He was blue and not breathing. Mom yelled to me to go get a barrel that was resting between the two houses and roll it over to her. I did it while Mom started CPR on Kenneth. When I arrived with the barrel, Mom rolled him face down back and forth on the barrel a few times. When she did, Kenneth threw up all the water he had swallowed. I was told to call the Fire Dept. When I returned, Kenneth was sitting up and breathing. Looking back on this incident, I have never found anyone treat a drowning victim like that. I have since wondered if everybody did what Mom did (getting water out of the lungs) there would be more survivors of drownings. Mom was also looked at as a midwife back in those days. She helped with the births of many babies years ago in our area. I have included a photo of her taken in the 1980s. She passed away in 1987.

Lillian Hazel Dyke R.I.P.
Submitted by daughter "Beverly Day"   Submitted By: Beverly Day