The Borden-Boston Connection

CAPTION: Lucy Kinch, centre, spends time in the Confederation Bridge control room with two of the employees she talks to about the bridge’s camera, Geraldine Gallant, left and Andrew Noonan, right, Wednesday afternoon at the Bridge’s office in Borden. PHOTO QUIGLEY/ JOURNAL PIONEER

A Bridge too Far

Former Islander watches Confederation Bridge from Massachusetts

Ryan Quigley

Journal Pioneer

BORDEN- For Lucy Kinch, home is over ten hours and about 900 kilometers away.

Originally from Alma, Prince Edward Island, the 95 year old now lives in Walpole, Massachusetts with her daughters Joanne and Shirley, moving there with her late husband Jan. 9, 1952, the homesick Island native discovered the Confederation Bridge camera on the internet.

Learning to use a computer at the age of 80, Kinch began watching the camera overlooking the bridge about a year after the bridge opened.

Ever since, Kinch’s routine consists of opens up the camera every morning when she wakes up and doesn’t closing it when she goes to bed.

“Why? It’s home. It’s my home,” said Kinch. “Home never left me, I left it.”

When the bridge camera stops working, the first call the Confederation Bridge staff receives is usually from Kinch.

Every time the camera goes down, Kinch said she does the same thing.

“First I’ll start to swear,” she laughed. “Who’s on now and what did they do, (she’ll say). Then I say well the bridge is down again, (her daughters say) well, did you call them? I say no, I’m not going to call them, I’m not calling them anymore. So then after a while I’ll break down and call.”

Andrew Noonan, an employee at the bridge remembers the first time she called him.

“She was a little cranky the first time she called, she was ready to put us in our place,” he joked. “They’re sleeping up there, she said. I told her we had no control and we had to get a hold of the I.T. guys. They weren’t long putting it up for her.”

People from all over the country call in but Kinch is different, said Noonan.

“We’ve had different people call over the years from all over Canada, but they call us once. Lucy has become our eyes for us.”

Every summer Kinch returns to P.E.I. to visit family and now staff at the Confederation Bridge, whom she’s grown close to. So close, Geraldine Gallant, another Confederation Bridge employees and her husband Blaine even went to Walpole to attend Kinch’s birthday last summer and deliver a present from the employees, a picture of the Confederation Bridge signed by the staff.

She’s become so popular with those at the bridge, she even has friends that aren’t human.

“It’s a Seagull and he goes on the same pole every year. Merna (one of her daughters) named him Jonathan,” said Kinch. “He’s the only seagull that’s around there that goes up on that pole. He’s got black wings, that’s how we know.”

Although she seems to be one of the bridge’s biggest fans, she is still nervous crossing it.

“See that strip across there? That’s only cement that got these two (pieces) joined together. What if one of them opens and we go down?”

Being scared of crossing the bridge has nothing to do with watching it.

Most days watching the feed are uneventful, she recalled seeing some interesting things such as those working the camera fixating on two women in a fishing boat in bikinis and a wedding.

“One day there was a cruise ship going through and I looked over at the computer and I said, what’s wrong now? It was just filled with little windows. It was up close to the cruise ship that was going underneath (the bridge).”

As much as she doesn’t want to, Kinch will be leaving Friday and she already knows what she’ll do when she gets home.

“Put the bridge up first thing, maybe call to see who’s working. If it’s down I’ll be calling immediately.”