Musical connection

As part of my research into hymn writers in the Isle of Man, I was given access to an ms collection which had been made by the late Cecil McFee. His daughter, Kath Looney, gave me permission to use the hymns in a publication I was preparing. Among the papers was a sheet on which he had written from memory a song that had been sung to him by his father, who had emigrated briefly to Canada in the early 1900s. The song was a Canadian slave song. In 1998, I took a copy of the song with me to a conference in Prince Edward Island, intending to show it to someone in the Music Department of the University. However, on the first day of the conference, I met a couple who had emigrated from the English Midlands several decades before, and were now living in Britich Columbia. Learning that they were members of a folk group, I showed them the song. It was one they didn't recognise so were delighted to have a new song to add to their repertoire. However, Andrea was startled to see the name of Cecil McFee as, in her childhood, her family had holidayed in the Isle of Man, had stayed in a house near the McFees, whom they knew well, and had been babysat by his daughter, Kath. I still find this one of the most remarkable coincidences of my life, and still get goosebumps when I think about it! Dr Fenella Bazin Honorary Research Fellow Centre for Manx Studies The University of Liverpool