'Fetch' Stories from Newfoundland - Patricia Dohey, St. Brides, Newfoundland

'Fetch' Stories from Newfoundland
Yesterday I posted about the word 'fetch' on my facebook feed and how I grew up hearing it in Wexford for a ghost/premonition/likeness of a person. The word is commonly used in Newfoundland and here is Patricia Doohey telling me a story about her husband seeing the 'fetch' of his neighbour, Paddy Conway one morning. The thing is, Paddy had died during the night, and this is what people called his 'fetch'.
I heard identical stories here and Patricia says that "he was looking for a mass". We had "looking for a prayer" with us in Wexford and it's the same thinking. The clip is brilliant as her storytelling is so real and honest. At the end she tells a great story of her grandfather and how her grandmother's ghost came back and sat in the rocking chair beside him every night.
As I've said many times, I don't care less if you believe these stories or not, these are the stories many of us grew up hearing and loving. They were entertaining, they were frightening and they were relatable. They are also real in the sense of being rooted in the lives and the communities where they were told and Patricia's telling is real storytelling. It's not some over-animated actor type performing, instead just told as real and matter a fact. The real stuff.
Text: Michael Fortune
Fetch story on Facebook - / 789949999894114