Remembering William

 Our oldest son William would have turned 48 today.  I can't believe it!  It's 10 years since his water bomber went down while fighting a forest fire in northern Alberta.  He was described as a hero at his three memorials, and I believe it.  He was looked up to by his crew as a leader.

Will decided to become a pilot and nothing stood in his way.  After college he flew out of Kenora, on Fiji, out of Prince Rupert, for Wasaya Airways in northern Ontario (the big twin engine freight planes), and finally for Conair, the fire-fighting company out of Abbotsford, B.C.  I've just finished reading the 96 tributes to him on the Forever Missed website, and he's uniformly described as a kind, compassionate friend.  He always put safety first, and he had a dry sense of humour.

This is my favourite photo of William as a pilot, because it shows him 'living his dream'.  After we passed a large forest fire on our way to the Yukon, complete with water bombers, his dream became to be a water bomber pilot himself, and after 10 years of flying he made it.  His passing so young was tragic, but knowing that he had followed his dream somehow makes it a little easier.

Ten years later I think of his brother and sister and how much they have lost.  I hope their memories serve them well.  Here are three pictures illustrating those memories.

William and his sister Katherine, out of Twillingate, Newfoundland, 1992.

Yes, that's an iceberg in the background.

William and his brother Matt, in the meadow on Manitoulin about 1988.

It was just teeming with Monarch butterflies.

The whole family on our first trip west, at Lake Agnes in Banff National Park, 1986.

So many wonderful memories.