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What happened to Molly? Here is another story of love lost and the tragedy that ensued. A young girl, approximately 17, named Molly lived with her parents in one of the homes at Banyan and Park. She fell in love and was being courted by a handsome young man who returned her feelings with much fervor. Her parents, however, vowed that their daughter would not marry him. She was so despondent at the hearing of their decision she hung herself. When that didn’t work properly, she shot herself. It was then she suceeded. While this occurred in the 1930s, the residents of the home and visitors there have felt a strange presence at the end of their bed when staying in that room. One resident said that pairs of shoes neatly tucked away would be found jumbled into a pile on the floor sometimes. One former resident who frequently baked biscuits would sometimes turn away and, upon looking back, find the biscuits gone. They would turn up later on in a pair of shoes in the closet where Molly had died. Two women who spent the night in the home said they saw a vision of a young man standing in their room in the middle of the night. Could it have been the ghost of Molly’s lover, back to find his lost love? Shown in the photo above is an old towel found at the residence bearing Molly’s name – a sad remembrance of a girl who loved too hard, and was known to hanker for a biscuit or two. Loneliness ends a Life ... One soul who lived on the Port Boca Grande Lighthouse grounds met an untimely end. Not long after the Johnson family left their post, a new assistant lighthouse keeper by the name of Charlie Fine came to town. He was a single man who most people thought would fill the position perfectly. It was a hard life, as constant vigilance was necessary to wind the large weights that spun the light. The keeper also had to make sure the light was always lit. Fine worked the job for awhile, but became morose because he was unable to meet any girls and could barely keep friends because of the rigidity of his schedule. One night a shot rang out over the deep water in Boca Grande Pass. When the lighthouse keeper heard the shot he ran to check on his assistant and found him dead from a gunshot wound. People on the island were shocked, as they had always considered Fine a very decent and kind young man. At some point in that soured evening the loneliness got the best of him, though, and he ended his young life. 50 GASPARILLA ISLAND September/October 2017


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