Carolyn Matthews - To the Rescue!: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival

TO THE RESCUE!

To Helen, Jim, Paul and Anita

True Stories of Tragedy and Survival

Carolyn Matthews

Copyright Carolyn Matthews, 2005

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Copy-Editor: Lloyd Davis
Design: Andrew Roberts
Printer: Webcom

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Matthews, Carolyn

To the rescue! : true stories of tragedy and survival / Carolyn Matthews.

ISBN-10: 1-55002-561-9

ISBN-13: 978-1-55002-561-3

1. Rescues--Canada. 2. Rescues--United States. I. Title.

G525.M374 2005 363.34'81'0971

C2005-901763-5

1 2 3 4 5 09 08 07 06 05

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credit in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

Printed and bound in Canada.
Printed on recycled paper.

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My special thanks to Tim MacFarlane of Abbotsford, British Columbia, the cofounder and president of the Canadian Amphibious Search Team, without whom this book would not exist. From a young age, Tim wanted to engage in risky, challenging events so that he could feel fully alive and know what was important in life. As he matured, he took risks entirely for the purpose of helping other people.

In 2004, after many years of service, Tim took leave from his position as rescue specialist and captain of the Canadian Coast Guards dive team on the west coast. Long has he understood the need for people to achieve closure to tragic events; he knows that those members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police whose mandate it is to recover bodies are constrained by time and cost, so in 1991 he launched his private organization, the Canadian Amphibious Search Team, to fill this terrible need the recovering of the dead and returning them to their families.

For him, and for all the members of his teams on both the west coast and in Manitoba; for those of you in the pages of this book and all others who are not, but who should be I have utmost admiration and respect.

My special thanks to all of you who told me your stories, and in doing so revisited old pain and heartache. In this regard, thanks particularly to:

Rodger and Karen Rinker of Alberta;
Jack and Kathy Flaig of Richmond, British Columbia;
Delmer and Rita Quewezance of Estevan, Saskatchewan;
the Muchaw family of Houston, Texas, especially Ginger Stephens;
Bill and Matthew Hopps of California;
and Debbie Stewart of Lac La Hache, British Columbia.

It has given me much pleasure to write these stories and I feel my life has been enriched through my contact with all of you.

Thanks also to my husband, Tony Matthews, who helped me with all the technical details of preparing this manuscript. And thanks to all the staff at the Dundurn Group, and to Tony Hawke especially; it was a wonderful experience to work with you on this book.

We live, as we dream alone. Occasionally, the inner isolation each of us knows is alleviated by chance perhaps in the aftermath of a cataclysmic event, when rescuer and rescued meet and find that it is bridged for a time, perhaps for all time.

This book of true stories is about ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events: a ski accident, a missing child, a fall overboard, a slip off a mountain, sea rescues dramas that take place in the wilds of snowbound Labrador, in lonely Chilliwack, on a frozen lake high in the Sierra Nevadas, in the heart of a big city and on the coast of California. It is about the lives of rescuers adrenaline junkies, yes who search for lifes meaning while engaging in deeds of heroism and compassion. It is about the aftermath of rescue for both rescuer and rescued.

Many rescuers are reluctant to tell their stories. They say that what we call heroism is just something they do. But how many of us, even with the appropriate skills, are willing to dive under ice in black and dirty rivers to search for a body? Or to be lowered onto an ice platform high on a mountainside, knowing that we could easily fall to our own certain death? Or dangle on the end of a rope attached to a helicopter at 12,000 feet? Penetrate frozen forests in Labrador deep in the heart of winter to search for those lost within them? These are the things rescuers say:

I want to give back.

If you have special skills and dont use them to benefit others, youre selfish.

You have to help it could be you, your friend

You feel huge compassion you have to help.

You have a job to do, and you do just do it.

When youve risked yourself to save someone, its almost like youve given life.

Search-and-rescue work involves facing not only risk, but sacrifice: of time, energy, money, and emotional equilibrium. Physical exhaustion and nightmares are frequent companions.

But the rewards are many: there is joy in the act of giving, and in the saving of life. The pitting of oneself against long odds to overcome danger carries with it a sense of achievement. There is the finding of purpose in life, and the adding of meaning to it. One finds fellowship with others who share the same vision, passion, ideals and values, and enjoys their camaraderie. Bonding runs very deep among those who share pain, suffering, danger and success. Sometimes, rescuer and rescued form lifelong friendships. For many, search-and-rescue work is an all-consuming passion.

Search and rescue in Canada is under the jurisdiction of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in every province except Quebec and Ontario and is conducted according to formal police services agreements. RCMP search commanders assume overall on-site authority for the organization and management of the actual search, using proven management procedures. Initial responses often include police and civilian dog teams, and police helicopters equipped with forward-looking infrared. Trained volunteer rescue teams are brought to the search site volunteers with specific skills that include ice rescue, avalanche, helicopter long line, white water, underwater. The assistance of human trackers, too, are sometimes requested. In prolonged searches, other volunteer teams, conducting open- or closed-grid searches, are used, as well as the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, other provincial agencies, and the Canadian Coast Guard auxiliary.