This collection is dedicated to Gertie (née Smith) Strowbridge and the late Solomon Strowbridge, two wonderful people who, through my marriage to their son, became my second parents.

I also dedicate this book to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians everywhere who have kept the tongue of our forebears alive.

For he and I the vowel violate, and oft we drop the proper aspirate.

– R. A. Parsons, Salute to Port de Grave, 1975