Joseph Napolean Pitre was my Great Uncle on my Mom's side of the family tree. His life seemed to be connected to the number 13, none of it bad until the end.
Napolean was the 13th child of Victor Pitre and was born on the 13th of June 1904. He was born and raised in Petit Rocher, New Brunswick, Canada. At the time of his death he was living with his parents and 12 siblings (5 older and 7 younger), making it 13 children at home.
Not long after his 13th birthday, on July 27, 1917, Napolean died from accidental drowning (confirmed by death records) while trying to save another person (family oral history). Could it have been a sibling? They were all very close in age (just about everyone had a sibling 1 year older and 1 year younger than them). Was it a neighbour or friend playing in the river on a hot summers day? Did they survive or was the community in mourning for the loss of two lives? More digging required into archived newspapers to see if I can find a story.
Napolean, I don't know much about you, you were just starting to become a man when you died. I think you would have grown to be a wonderful person if your selfless act of dying while trying to save another person was any indication of the person you were becoming. Your family family thought you were very brave and told the story of your death so that future generations would know you were a good person.
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| NB Provincial Returns of Deaths, PITRE, NAPOLEON, 1917-07-27, County:GLOUCESTER |
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