My friend Peggy, also Martin’s wife, lost a dear coworker and friend quite suddenly to a car accident last week. She was a mother and a grandmother, a physical therapy assistant, and a curious, open-minded, loving, and generous woman. She also loved to go canoeing. Peggy told me she had always wanted her coworkers, her 2nd family, to gather at the river with her and today they did just that. Peggy is a grief counselor and she, I know, is very creative with ritual and healing. This morning, in the pouring rain, Peggy was in the middle of the river waist deep in a skirt launching this lovely canoe filled with flowers, remembering her friend, and hoping a little kid will discover this canoe and turn it into a toy of joy.
She called Martin Monday and asked him to make a boat so they could send flowers down the river at a memorial service. Martin, true sailor that he is, asked what type of boat, a steamer, a tall ship with sails, a passenger ship, a barge…?. Peggy got back to him after some consideration with the request for a canoe, in keeping with the spirit of her friend’s life. Well, this is the little boat which Martin whipped up out of an old closet door. You know, those hollow core doors, with the thin skin of pliable wood. Martin explained that he cut 2 pieces for the sides, drilled holes at each end and made little wire stitches. Then he pried the two sides apart and fitted in the bottom and poured epoxy into one end and then the other to seal it well. Using some leftover composite decking, he created what I guess is like a rudder for the bottom to stabilize the boat. He coated the entire craft with epoxy and it glistened. I loved seeing this project when it was done and hearing Peggy’s tale about its adventure today.
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