Jérôme
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The castaway
The castaway we've come to know as "Jérôme" in the Clare area has been a mystery from the moment he was found on the shores of Sandy Cove, September 8th, 1863.
A few local men from Digby Neck were walking along the beach when they spotted something on the sand.
As they got closer they saw that it was a man. Both of his legs had been surgically amputated above the knees and the bandages were soaked with blood.
His clothes had been carefully stripped of buttons and any other items that could serve as identification tools. Next to him lie a jug of drinking water and a package containing ship biscuits.
The stranger was unconscious and once brought to, he could not or at least he would not speak. Shortly after this discovery Mr. John Nicholas, a Clare man who spoke seven European languages, interviewed the castaway.
After the one-sided conversation, Nicholas announced that by the stranger's reactions to the questions and different languages he thought that the man was most likely Italian but seemed to understand French.
He also mentioned that when asked his name, the man muttered a word sounding like "Jérôme" and this would become the stranger's name until the end of his days.
For the next seven years Jérôme lived with Nicholas family and it was soon concluded that he kept silent not because of some physical limitation, but for another reason known only to him. When caught off guard Jérôme would answer questions.
Once when asked the name of his home, Jérôme answered "Triestre" which is a city in the Northern part of Italy. He also answered "Columbo" when asked the name of his ship. After being tricked into speaking, Jérôme would become furious and shut himself up in his room.
Stories circled the town about Jérôme's life, his silence and the reasons why he was deliberately left on the shore. Although Jérôme never had a very good relationship with adults, he got along very well with the local children. They would visit him, bring him candy and eventually he became quite fond of the sweet gifts.
Jérôme moved to Saint Alphonse to live with the family of William Comeau and while there received a visit from two strange ladies. The ladies asked if this was where they could find the man with the amputated legs.
Once the women were in the house, Jérôme led them into his room and a long conversation followed in which he took an active part. The family listened outside the door, but could not understand the language being spoken in the other room. After the meeting, the two ladies left the house without another word. They then conversed outside and seemed to be of the impression that Jérôme was being well taken care of and they were to leave him where he was. The ladies never returned.
Another strange occurrence added more mystery to this silent man's story. Charles, William Comeau's son, had gone to Boston for work. While there, two women came to visit him from the Southern United States. They had read in the papers stories about a man with amputated legs who was found in Nova Scotia.
The woman proceeded to tell him that the unfortunate man's name was Jeremiah and that he came from Alabama. They handed him a letter to give to "Jeremiah" and asked him to deliver it for them. Upon his return to Clare, Charles did as he had promised and handed the letter to his father's border. Jérôme took the letter, looked at it from every angle and then threw it into the fireplace. The family was shocked and disappointed with this and the story of "Jeremiah" was never known.
The man we came to know as Jérôme passed away on April 19th, 1912. A monument dedicated to Jérôme was erected by the Societé Historique de la Baie Sainte-Marie in August of 2000 in the Meteghan cemetery where Jérôme is buried along with all the answers to our forever-growing list of questions.
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