Hank and Henny from Down the Bay

Now Hank and Henny grew up next door to each other in a small town on the Gaspe Coast. Henny's  father, Mr. Henderson, worked  for Judge Morrisette as his legal aid. Her mother  raised Henny as well as her six brothers and sisters. They had a fine home and were well respected in the small town.  Hank didn't have a father because his mother told him that  his father had died before he was born. His mother was a school teacher and  she  struggled to keep a roof over  their heads. Hank was an only child and  fell in love with Henny as a small boy. Every Sunday afternoon, he and his mother were invited to visit  Mr. and Mrs. Henderson's and stay for supper. Hank looked forward to this special event every week for he got to play school with Henny. They would dress up and spend the afternoon  pretending that they were grownups. One day he told her that when they really  did grow up, he would marry her. She said yes and so they spent the rest of their childhood knowing what  they would do later in life. Everyone in town would smile when they talked about Hank and Henny. They were best friends and even at school, they could always be found playing on the same baseball team and standing in the same row singing in the choir.

 

When Hank was fourteen, he fell  off the roof shoveling snow at school.  Instead of landing in the snow bank, he  fell on the railing of the back veranda. Henny heard him scream from inside, for she had been waiting to walk home from school with  him.   Hank  lost his sight that day. He  could no longer go to school nor participate in any   physical  events for he had broken his leg as well. It never healed properly and he  spent the rest of his life as a cripple.   Henny  refused to let him feel sorry for himself and every day after school she stopped by his place and  helped him recuperate his mind as  well as his body. She  would spend hours each week helping him with his school work so that he would stay focused on  getting better.  Often  Hank would tell her  that she would have to find someone else to marry for he would always be a blind cripple who would not be able to do anything worthwhile in life.  She took a part time job the following summer and saved enough money to buy him a fiddle. She told him that would be his job. He never had any interest in music and told her that she had wasted her money buying something that would only gather dust in  the corner of his room.

 

Hank and Henny got married on a beautiful sunny day in June. They were  both twenty years old and   the community watched the amazing young couple exchange  their vows of  forever.   Looking into each other's eyes, they knew they were fulfilling a promise that they had made to each other  when they were children. Henny became a teacher and Hank a much sought after fiddler player. He played at weddings, concerts and community events.  They never had any children  but they always had each other.

Click link for a little fiddle fun

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNCyddtqZEU