July 8th
Mexican Partying, Powerful Paddling and Memories of Marg in Nanaimo

The passionate nurturing of our coaches, our training in Fort Langley’s endurance building Bedford Channel and memories powered Abreast with FORT-itude to a third place finish at this year’s dragonboat festival in Nanaimo.

With my first summer event as a newly minted mercenary paddler under my belt, I felt star struck. Here I was crossing an awards ceremony stage with my 20 teammates to receive a bronze medal. As a novice at Alcan I had never experienced anything more scintillating than a second last place finish. Our acceptance of this win before hundreds of enthusiastic dragonboating fans on a picturesque, balmy night was more than intoxicating.

It was surreal. Later one of my novice buddies, on another team at this summer event, joked, “Carol, you looked like you couldn’t get enough and didn’t want to leave the stage.” Yvonne was right. I wanted to burn into my brain this magical moment in a city that I had moved to from Ontario to begin a broadcasting career, 25 years ago.

The significance of paddling in the birthplace of my career inspired me to pour every ounce of paddling knowledge that our Fort Langley coaches had instilled in me into helping our team do well. The challenging practices in the fast waters of Bedford Channel — our secret weapon — had powered up my arms.

But it was not just our training ground or Lita’s and Juanita’s attentive and constructive coaching that powered us to strong finishes in five races and the third best breast cancer survivor team time — 2:46.72 minutes. It was the memory of Marg McKee.

A tragic accident had claimed the life of her partner and her, just days before the Nanaimo Regatta. Last year was the first time Marg had participated in the event since joining Abreast In A Boat in 2004 and making Abreast In Barnet her home team.

During the three day event, Marg had become legendary for her paddling power, fancy line-dancing footwork and her brilliant smile. Her sudden death created a huge hole in the hearts of many paddlers. Maria, a Fort Langley regular, had shared a room with Marg at last year’s Nanaimo regatta and was going to do the same this year. She helped light and float a giant candle dedicated to Marg during an emotional candle light ceremony for breast cancer survivors at Swy-a-lana Lagoon under a soft marine blue evening sky.

Nell, who had been Marg’s teammate at Barnet and was supposed to be paddling with her at this regatta had withdrawn from the event to attend Marg’s funeral.

One of the strokes, a camera-brave Sue?, had adlibbed a heartfelt eulogy to Marg before a couple of filmmakers who are putting together a documentary about the dragonboat festival. The filmmakers are inserting the eulogy into a customized shorter version of the documentary for our team and Marg’s son Connor.

Pictures of Marg looking Oh so pretty in Pink and dazzling the viewer with her bright, generous smile, adorned our tent. In keeping with the Breast Cancer Survivor Mexican dinner theme, our team had transformed our tent into a Mexican retreat, complete with banners depicting pastel coloured haciendas, a Mexican Flag and colourful streamers.

Being girls who love to dress up, and intent on painting the Breast Cancer Survivor tent red, many Abreast with Fort-itude members were dripping with colourful jewels and shawls. Mary was stunning in an all black with white trim peasant dress. Sherrill, sporting a midnight black mustache that would have turned the most macho man green with envy, had to fend off a few ladies.

We knew that Marg would have stolen the spotlight once her dancing feet went to work. This is a team that makes all its members feel special — three members’ birthdays were celebrating during our race breaks. So Marg’s shining face was put front and centre during the Breast Cancer Survivor race final. Juanita and the mid-stroke paddlers had pinned pictures of Marg in pink to their backs.

We leaned into our power tens and lifted the boat up, up, up to glide atop choppy water. Our eyes focused on the top arm of our teammates ahead, but it was Marg’s smile that lifted up our spirits. We exited our dragonboat buoyed by the joy of our third place finish for Marg and all breast cancer survivors.

As a novice and a former Nanaimoite, I was deeply moved by the expressions on the tear stained faces of the paddlers and spectators who had formed a celebratory arch with their arms for us to run under. With outstretched hands, eager to clasp mine, each one looked straight into my eyes, welcoming me with respect and tenderness for surviving a battle that takes so many lives.

Thank you Nanaimo from all of us.

Article submitted by Carol Thorbes