My Mother and the Nazi spy?

 My Mother and the Nazi Spy

During the war in Louisbourg, my mother, Celia LeDrew (née Shaw), operated a boarding house at my grandfather's home on Commercial Street, right by the water near the government wharf and across from Cann's marine yard. She had a few boarders who worked at Cann's, including my father. One morning, the RCMP arrived with a woman and her two children—a young boy of about nine and his sister, who was around five or six. My mother was instructed to refer to the woman as Mrs. Smith and was cautioned not to disclose her presence to anyone, except to call for help if anyone came looking for her.

From what my mother gathered, the woman’s husband had been working in town as a dentist. He seemed wealthy and foreign, and after dating for some time, he proposed to her. She later discovered that he had married her in a rural Catholic church, with a friend posing as the priest while the real one was attending a funeral. They eventually moved to Ontario, where she learned he was German and an ardent supporter of Hitler. He raised their children to emulate Nazi behavior, ignoring their mother's attempts to guide them. He even possessed a secret shortwave radio and would sometimes vanish for days. Eventually, my mother could no longer tolerate the situation and sought help from the RCMP, who brought her back to Cape Breton. The children continued their Nazi antics, much to the dismay of those around them, and were often cruel to their mother, engaging in acts like putting the cat in a box and kicking it down the stairs. One of the boarders, Doug Hannon, intervened and gave the boy a good talking to.

One day, a local policeman arrived at our door with a stranger, claiming that the man was searching for his wife and children. However, when they turned to look at him, he had mysteriously vanished. My mother panicked, alerting the men who were having lunch, and they rushed to find him. She dashed upstairs and confronted the man as he climbed the back stairs. When he tried to shove her aside, she punched him in the mouth, knocking out three of his teeth. This delay allowed the police and the men to catch up and apprehend him.

The RCMP were called in and took them all away. My mother did not hear anything about the incident until ten years later when she received an anonymous letter thanking her and stating that the children had finally become well-behaved. It's worth noting that around the same time, there was a scare about a saboteur who was allegedly placing bombs in the coal used by the ships for fueling. My mother was a strong, determined Cape Breton woman, weighing just 118 pounds.