Kenny James has been keeping “Lighthouse Keeper” in his back pocket for a little while, but when an opportunity came up to present the song within a specific context James leapt at the opportunity. What happened after that was an unexpected surprise.
With no fewer than six shipwrecks along that stretch of the Northumbland Straight between 1834 and 1870, someone finally decided to do something about it. Construction began on the Cape Jourimain Lighthouse in late 1869 and was put into operation the following year.
The lighthouse was manned through nearly nine decades of service, until it became automated in 1958. It was finally decommissioned in 1997 when the Confederation Bridge was built, spanning the Strait between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and consequently doing away with ferry service between the two.
The structure was acquired by the Cape Jourimain Nature Centre in 2015 and moved further inland in 2016, and renovated in 2017 as a visitor centre. To commemorate the occasion Kenny James was asked to perform at their official launch.
Afterwards, James was approached by a woman who said that her friend, Marrilyn Clarke Trenholm, would love to hear the song. Trenholm’s father, Merrill Trenholm, had been the final lighthouse keeper to serve at the Cape Jourimain Lighthouse.
“I got a call from Marrilyn – she was half in tears,” says James. “She told me about how her Mother and Father sent her away at the age of 14 to live with her grandmother in England in order to have a better life and a better education.
She was very sad because she loved New Brunswick, and would miss her parents dearly. Her father remained as the lighthouse keeper, hoping that one day she would be able to return, but she never did.
Over the years, in England, she did become a very successful business woman. To this day, she is very emotional about not returning to New Brunswick, and when she heard the song – she couldn’t believe how it resonated with her life story.”
Kenny James says that making that serendipitous connection across all that distance and time has been an “amazing” experience.
“It takes the meaning in a slightly different direction, but it dovetails so nicely. Man, it pulls at the heartstrings.”