In all the years of their marriage, my father won nearly every contest he
ever entered. Always something, some trinket, sometimes a nice item, but
usually, he won something. My mother, of course, delighted in his
winnings, but was just a tad envious of his good fortune. Well, the day
finally came when my mother won a contest, and it was no little prize. She
won an 11 day trip on a dive boat in Fiji!!! This was fantastic as both of
them had, in the last few years, become certified SCUBA divers.
The trip was planned for late October 2005. Then, with the trip just three
weeks away, my mother had a heart attack and died while taking an
underwater photography class off Catalina Island.
Life went topsy-turvy for a while, it still is for my father. My mother
was cremated and most of her ashes now sit on a shrine of sorts in my
father’s bedroom along with a lock of her hair.
The trip was post-phoned until late March 2006, just after what would have
been their 40th wedding anniversary. My father thought it would be
appropriate to leave a bit of my mother in Fiji. He constructed a vial
made of marine bronze so that it resisted the erosion of saltwater. In it
he placed some of her ashes, a lock of her hair, a lock of his hair and one
from each of us kids, just my brother and I.
During one of the dives, my father and his long time friend and dive
partner Al, scout out a place to deposit the vial. They dive a spot named
Ron’s Delight. About 75 feet down, there’s a clear expanse of blue and
right in the middle there is a spot of green. It’s a rise of coral with
beautiful fishes. My father decides…that’s the spot. They return to the
boat after the dive and as they move to the next dive location, they pass
over Ron’s Delight and my father lets go the vial. It is an emotional
moment for them both.
Later that day, Al told the captain what had happened. He requested that
just for this day, just for this log entry, would they please refer to the
site as Christine’s Delight in honor of my mother. The captain was touched
and he agreed but he also said that he would go one further. He said that
it would forever be renamed Christine’s Delight.
Totally related:
Thank you for letting me share this with you. Update:
Following is a link to the Fiji Aggressor II Captain's Log for the
week of April 1-8, 2006.
I was expecting some wiseass to make fun of this in some way, but I'm
glad no one did. Sorry about that, your father seems to have loved her very
much, I hope he'll be alright.
As minhas condolências.
I thought about that too, but I also thought that this is the place to
express myself. I see that underneath all the b0gness, you all really
are a bunch of great people. Thank you.
One of the greatest things you can hope for in this life is to be loved and
cherished by others.
It looks like your mother had that.
I'm sure she's smiling down at you all right now. :)
Christine's Delight
