ALISON LANGLEY
Local News - Wednesday, May 23, 2007 @ 07:00
The White Witch of Niagara Falls once said the only two days she didn't believe in were "yesterday and tomorrow."
"There isn't anything I can do about what happened yesterday and no one can guarantee you a tomorrow, not even a fortune teller," Joanna Honsberger told a Review reporter during an interview in 1980.
As cancer ravaged her body, the local psychic found she couldn't even guarantee herself a tomorrow. She died Saturday at the age of 68.
A flamboyant woman with platinum hair, dark-rimmed eyes and often wearing deep red lipstick, Honsberger was The Review's resident psychic.
Each December, a Review reporter would visit her quaint north end home to hear what was in the cards for the following year.
With tarot cards laid out before her, she offered her predictions for the coming year. She would share her views on what the future held for Niagara Falls and the world.
"She has been doing readings ever since I can remember and she really always looked forward to doing the predictions for the newspaper," said her son, Garth Honsberger.
Sometimes her predictions held true ... sometimes they turned out to be a bit off the mark.
In late 1989, she predicted an assassination attempt on then-prime minister Brian Mulroney. Mulroney made it through 1990 unscathed.
For 2005, though, she predicted Mayor Ted Salci would "have a rough time." She suggested he should watch out for stress on the job as it would likely lead to health problems.
That summer, Salci underwent heart bypass surgery.
The mayor admits he was a bit rattled by the prediction.
"It was in the back of my mind, I can tell you," he said Tuesday.
Salci added he had no symptoms of impending heart trouble at the time. "Obviously, she had some kind of ability. It's a little eerie."
But she wasn't always right when it came to Salci.
"She once came up to me on Queen Street and said 'Your left leg! You'll have trouble with your left leg.' I've never had trouble with my left leg."
This year, Honsberger was unable to provide her annual prognostications due to illness.
Born in St. Catharines and raised in Niagara Falls, she said she had her first psychic experience at age four at which time her grandmother declared her as a witch. It was an image she enjoyed - her newspaper obituary even identified her as "the White Witch," and she identified herself on her income tax forms as a psychic.
During one of her regular guest spots on a local radio call-in show, someone referred to her as a white witch. From then on, she was known around town as the White Witch.
Over the years, she appeared on numerous television and radio shows, including a spot on the Tonight Show in the 1970s.
"She really got a kick out of being on Johnny Carson," Garth said.
The modern day witch also used her "gift" to assist law enforcement. Police in Toronto spoke with her in the early 1990s regarding the Scarborough rapist, who turned out to be notorious schoolgirl killer Paul Bernardo.
"She told detectives they had already interviewed who it was and they had at that time already interviewed Bernardo for the Scarborough rapes," Garth said.
If she could help others - from police to the public - she would.
"She would have people call about missing children, missing pets, missing wallets. She tried to help them all," her son said.
To those who doubted her paranormal abilities, Garth contends his mother had a strong fan base.
"She never advertised," he said. "All her work was by word of mouth. There must have been something to it or she wouldn't have had any business."
When not offering an insight to the future, Honsberger enjoyed her time with her grandchildren and her pets. She is survived by four children and seven grandchildren.
Joanna Honsberger's family will receive friends Thursday at 10 a.m. at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church on Victoria Avenue. A memorial mass will follow.
http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/webapp ... s&classif=
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
