Leaving home: Growing number of N.L. outports make wrenching choice to resettle
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Raymond Blake can still see his mother, a strong woman raising six kids alone after his father died, dissolve into tears as the schooner pulled away from their home in remote southern Newfoundland.
It was a Monday in July 1969. They were leaving all they’d ever known in Pushthrough, a tiny fishing settlement of 150 people, for a new start across the water in comparatively modern Hermitage.
“The next thing you know, I was crying and my brothers were crying. I didn’t quite know what was really going to happen,” Blake recalled.
“I’ll never forget my mother leaving her home.”