Alice’s First Visit to the Oak is the first known occasion on which Alice Pagett went alone to the oak in the Field beside St Joseph’s Church. Molly Pagett and Father Hagan found her kneeling there, smiling until she noticed them; then she seemed confused and disoriented. The unexplained visit becomes more troubling in retrospect when Alice returns to the tree and her repeated drawings lead Father Hagan toward their apparent subject, the Statue of the Virgin Mary in St. Joseph’s Church.

Background and Search

Two weeks before the later nighttime disappearance, Molly discovered that Alice was missing and searched the church and its grounds twice, also running down to the road to check whether her daughter had gone there. In a panic, she went to Father Hagan’s house, and he joined the search. He was the one who spotted Alice in the Field beside St Joseph’s Church, kneeling before the oak. The account gives no explanation for how Alice got there or what drew her to the tree.

The Encounter

When Molly and Father Hagan approached, Alice was smiling. That expression vanished as soon as she became aware of them, and she appeared confused and disoriented. They led her back. Molly asked her in sign language why she had gone into the field, but Alice only looked puzzled, as though she did not understand the question. The episode therefore provides no clear account of Alice’s purpose: the adults witness her at the tree, but cannot learn from her what happened there.

Drawings and Recurrence

After the visit, Alice seemed all right, though Molly thought she might be a little more distant than usual, and tried to put the incident out of her mind. In the two weeks before the later episode, however, Alice repeatedly drew a similar figure. Her pictures used mostly yellow and gray, sometimes with blue; one differed in color, using red and black. The figure appeared to be a woman dressed in white, surrounded by yellow and without a face. Alice was not an accomplished artist, and the images remained indistinct, but their repetition made them difficult for Molly and Father Hagan to dismiss.

Father Hagan eventually recognized a resemblance between the drawings and the Statue of the Virgin Mary in St. Joseph’s Church, before which Alice often sat. The recognition did not reassure him: instead, he felt a sudden despair. In retrospect, the first visit is significant less for any answer it supplies than for the pattern it begins—Alice’s unexplained return to the oak, her inability to account for the first encounter, and images that point toward a sacred figure without making their meaning certain.