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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1973-12-06, Page 17Crossroacls the weekly boos In your h*tawwel Manner, Whistle* Advance, limes mid Mwnrt Forest Confe- derate is read by U.* people In the "heartland of Midwestern Oats rite ((Based on 3.5 readers In each of a homes.) Published every week in The Uistowert nnor, The Win9hclm Ad'vonce.Tirn and The Mit Forest Confederate by Wenger Bros. Limited. rc► ---Crossroads—Deca ►lra r r l73—. Photo nd Doug McCann " You go right down here and turn left on the second street. Go straight .'down that street until you come to the big house at the very ca -end of git. Itused to be You a hotel.. e7.' ou. n't' miss The eerie hose loomed, strangely in front Of me. The lady " at. the restaurant wasn't whist- • ling "Jingle Balis}' when she told • • Me, I couldn't miss its Inside that. house .in ',Millbank . , lives a woman , who has- written; twenty books. She is 'a woman who writes 400 letters,.or'More a • month helping people to . solve their problems. And what lems i• Everything'f romhelping a pollee force to find a dead body, • - to . convincing •a quarrelling Married couple • to ..go back .together, She ..is an-. •author,, marriage counsellor:; 4detective, nurse, and, most of all, a friend to everybody, ' 'Of course:• .011 this, w►as : an e 'knownst to min. when. I,opened the ° woodsh or ouse; to meet Vera Ernst McNichol, and, having � brainwash by a lot of ' malarkey about the super- natural :(O.h, didn't I tell you, she can reveal regiments to your 'about your • past and future,' too">�well she can. Anyway Vera McNichol is not the type.'of person I expected to answer that door which declared, in, writing, "Enter At Your Own. Risk". She was busy with One of •her. clients, , or children,, as she . prefers to calt'-them,§so f•ambled through the hallway into thy, front. room • .where 1 found another , •`child" waiting to see this lovable woman, John McNichol introduced hints self tome and within fiyet 1putes knew who:1 was, What was'doing;; there, where I was from and al-, most found out What I. had for breakfast that morning,. I soon,. found, out, 'though,, that Mr. McNichol's hobby ~is; learn ing, While other people watch the boob tube, he reads everything he van get his hands on, and talks to ' at least 100 people a week: Mrs. McNIeb+I's children. • . Ile suddenly threw a curve at me. "laid you know that the Irish. are originally from Spain?" he said: 1 pondereda moment, attempting to imagine an Trish man fighting ,a bull and quite easily believed itwas•possible. As if to reinforce his statement he .darted to a glass bookcase and thrust a history" book before my nose. After my history lesson 'L leafed through a couple of MM.' Mc -a Nichol's books, Smiling Through Tears, and Bible Stories in. Verse (volume one). She has also written Frons Manger to glory, Little Drops. of Water,, Reflections of Sunshine, Sunshine and Afterglow,This and That;. Reveries. pf a Pioneer, Wallace,, Elma,Mornington, Rib - ., bert and,'llarton, The East hopes, Downie and Blan shard, and 1' could go on. But won't. THIS IS MY GIFT: Mrs. McNichol asked me to sit down. "I love ,hat f. do," she "Rut cut the, pressure gets to me onee'in a while." She has had to turn away as many ' as 27 .people per hour when visitors were plentiful. When did she Write her 20 !mks? ."I .do most of my writing after midnight. It doesn't take me too long to write the book but I do .all of ray own arranging and layout wortoo. That's what consumes thetime." Mrs. Whenshe. McNiwchasol a'verxhad .Iitile=girl, hier ,.first Premonition. "There :was a. viii- for in the home of my . father. Suddenly 1 pointed 'MY finger at him and said he would die in two weeks. I told him it womdhappen in a car and 1 told him %the lads tion. Two weeks later he died in that spot in a car accident:" For ,you skeptics.,: Mrs M. Nichol's powers were .backed, ftp ;by at,least two of her visitors that go and day.°And if you don't f breve, as Y} ~;visit her anti you: may ',change your mind; "MY.father told mehe wouldni. have any devil in me.: IIe shoos" me and whip . me;. 'thinks 'bad;fseen overtaken 1:• began to think : f l.had swallowed,;, the snake from the Garden of Eden, so I went to a priest and he prayed, "God if Ihisisa gift,take way her tear 44. It it its a; Burse ke it nll fIY/SY, . THE WRITER:. Mrs. McNichol has. written since she was a child. She: says, "My teachers used to say.that I was born'to write andI know that writing is. what I love to ydo the most. I wrote when 1 nursed too, but didn't get anything published during that time because it cost too much.". She nursed for 18 years, part of that time in Listowel. In volume two of her Smiling Through Tears shewrites of her experiences as a nurse inistowel and Peterbo- rough' hositals and also in pri- vate homes atter her marriage. Her most recent book, Across Our'' Kitchen ' Table, is her des- cription of her experiences in reading people's fortunes and helping them with their prob- "I feel that people are out for themselves In these times. And that makes it even worse and it makes me very sad." . ~ aref explain it but I've had this gift since I WAS a Child. I've been torted and examined by psychelegists and they cannot explain it either ... " "I've had people from all walks of life in here except a hangma'And .1 lave t Idris. "The book is about my side of the table," she says. The one fol- lowing It is called, Your Two Cents•Worth". It's from the view- point of, the 'people who visit me." The two books make up 1,030 pages altogether and the first. voltlme, Across Our Kitchen Table, will be released in Febru- ary. Aside from achieving an excel- lent degree of success with her books, Mrs. McNichol has re- ceived two letters from Queen Elizabeth complimenting her on her` work. She has also received letters of congratulations from Governor General MacArthur and Prime Minister Trudeau, but says, "I'm not influenced by those types of things 'because I like to keep myself humble. The Bible says, 'A little child shall lead' .and _ unless we keep ourselves humble we get haugh- ty. That is very wrong." When she spoke of being child- like 1 remembered her writing in Smiling Through Tears that she is an incessant giggl. "Do you know why I giggle? she chuckled. I shook my head. "The devil hates happy people." And while she giggled I thought even the devil would have a hard time hating her. She has turned down an offer to appear on the Pierre Berton Show for an interview because "I'm like a little bug that doesn't want to come out from under a leaf and get burned in the hot sun." HER 1974 PREDICTION: Even the devout skeptic raises his . brow when someone begins making predictions about the coming year. Each one of us would give our eye teeth to know what is coming at us around that bend between today and tomor- row. Mrs. McNichol leans forward and clasps her hands tightly to- gether. „"I have no predictions about 1974," she says. My antici- pation is squashed. "But," she quickly sits up, "I want every- body I can reach to know that God Is real. I've proven him to myself. And I know there is a hereafter and all the rest doesn't matter." Somehow the answer Satisfies. my curiosity more than if she had. told ;rne a rosy 1974 was in the works for Canada. But her answer is not complete and that happy year may have to wait for a while. "The signs of the times are in the sky." Her eyes narrow and she whispers, "Through contacts with very political •men I know these are restless times with restless minds at work ; determining the future of us all. I deal with seven people who are contemplating suicide each week now. It's higher than ever before." "I feel that people are out for themselves in these times." Her face becomes dark and stern, "And that makes it even worse and ii snakes me very sad." ACROSS HER TABLE: "I've had people from every walk of life in here except a hangman. And I love them ail." Mrs. McNichol has used her powers to help police investiga- tions, recover lost money, and even convince a young girl that an operation on her leg was the only way she could be helped. She tries to provide more than powers of premonition to the people who need her help. "Af- fection ! " she exclaims. "That's what people need. That's just what this whole world needs." She then proceeded to unravel a tale about a young girl who was brought to her by a doctor in the hopes that Mrs. McNichol could convince her that an operation on her leg might help her to walk again. "I talked with the girl for a while and finally told her it was her decision and I hoped she made the best one. Then, just before she left I leaned down -to her. She was in a wheel chair. And I kissed her on the forehead. Two weeks later the doctor wrote and told me she had the operation and they were quite sure it had 'been successful." "Do you know what I think it was that did it?" she asks, "The kiss on her forehead. The child was without parents and amid all of the confusion to save her leg the most important thing was forgotten: affection. She had to know that someone sincerely cared about her future: And that is the basis of any power 1 have,,I care. That's my.gift," "A woman once came to me and told me her son had been missing for six months. She said Vancouver police wanted her to go out and identify a body they had found in the harbor. She wanted me to tell her whether or not it was her son's body. I told her her son had gone further south and that it was another boy who had been killed, mistaken for her son. I knew sorneone was trying to kill her son but they had killed the wrong boy. I also had the feeling that her son was going to phone her _ that day and I prayed he would, and he'did." Mrs. McNichol has seen mira- cles and sadness. Each time that screen door leading into her kit- chen squeaks, another human being walks through with prob- lems. And she lives those prob- lems with them. When does i take a break? ° '"I can'tt .leave this ..place be' cause cause I'm ; dedicated to these people who want my help. There are so many to help: I can't leave here for a day's fun because this is my fun. But, I lock the doors on Sunday." Does she refer to herself as a fortune teller? "No; what I`;do is dynamic psychology. Common sense is the best word for it." "I began helping ~people like this in 1940 when I still nursed in Listowel. Now it's such an all-time job I scarcely have time to sleep. I don't wish to encourage more people to come to me, because there are more than enough now. They've even come to see me by chartered bus." CAN'T EXPLAIN IT: I had been sitting there in won- derment at some of the things this kind -faced lady was saying. The passion in her tone of voice, Please turn to Page 4 "Do you know why iglggi+ Because thedevil hates happy people!"