When my brother took sick about nine years ago, the doctors did not know what was wrong. He was deteriorating very quickly. My parents went to Newfoundland to be with him. I remember my mother telling me how sick he looked and how worried she was. They were at the hospital this one day and my brother knew that my mother was worried and he told her, “Don’t worry Mom, just like Stan Rogers wrote in the Mary Ellen Carter, I’ll rise again, I’ll beat this.” He did recover. They discovered he had ulcerative colitis and he went through three major surgeries, and he beat it. I love the song “The Mary Ellen Carter.”

—Debbie MacRury