Donald Layne’s Warning

Donald Layne lives in the house next to the one my kindred stayed in. He warns my family to be careful down by the water. Did the owner, or the renter, who stayed in the house Christine Rosamond got the keys for, give a warning to my family?

The sheriff told me a fisherman was washed off the same rocks a week earlier, and drowned. Did the owner or renter know of this death?

Then there was the newspaper account of a young woman whose car was found in the driveway to the house. She was nowhere to be found. Her body was never recovered. This happened weeks after Christine drowned. Shannon told me Sande Green stayed in this house.

The following account is in Tom Snyder’s terrible biography that did not sell, because Christine is made out to be deluded and insane. You can say my family threw me over the cliff because I could not buy all the lies! God knows I tried! I could not swallow the idea that Rosamond prophesied her own death seconds before the “moody” rogue wave came from thousands of miles across the sea. What clock-work! It – was ordained!

Donald Layne gets some credit, as co-prophet, he on par with Cassandra of Troy.

I see this being made into one of those dark and moody Irish movies about a family of sea-scavagers that lure ships to their doom on the rocks by lighting bonfires.

“Aye! It was fine spring morning, then, the clouds began to roll in. Being a MacCrudy, I helped gather driftwood into a big pile on the beach!”

Jon Presco

“Christine tells Layne that she and others are excited about exploring a small cove to search for any treasures left by the sea. That
evening, he sounds a warning;” If you go down to the ocean,” he tells Christine, “have a care.”

In the morning, under a windless sky, Christine, her daughter Drew and sister Vicki, make their way down a fence line.”

“Along the precipitous coastline, the Pacific is elusive in its moods. That was foremost in Donald Lane’s mind in voicing his warning. When near the water’s edge, visitors must follow a fundamental rule: Never turn your back on the ocean. Yet on this fine spring morning, that is precisely what Christine Rosamond does. She sits on a rock with her back to the sea and jams her hands securely in the leather jacket’s pockets.”You know,” she says aloud, “if a giant wave came right now, it could take out to sea and I could drown.”

“Traveling thousands of miles across the Pacific, the mountain of water offshore would appear at first only to be a heavy swell.
But in the moment that its base slams into the rock wall extending beyond and well above the rocky inlet, an enormous surge of water is
driven upward with a terrible force.” Page 178