The One That Got Thrown Away
2008 01 28-By Debbie, RowofLife Land Support
About a week ago……wow, I have been blog absent, which would have continued except for the fabulous little voice in my head telling me, “you need to blog, Deb!”….. Angela told me a little story she wanted me to include in the blog. Those were more jovial times; 60 miles a day, happy times….the days I feared that RowofLife would make it to Antigua, before Angela’s wheelchair and passport and Franck’s credit card and pictures of his kids, and me. That stuff and I would all be in some random airport (this is a low budget team….we will take 5 layovers, if we can go across the country for $100.) whilst Angela and Franck patiently waited in English Harbour for RowofLife Land Support to arrive. But the winds have changed, the pain and physical problems have increased, and now I will surely beat them to English Harbour, Antigua. But I digress….
A week ago, Angela asked me to tell you their fish story. Our team was rowing their hearts out; trying to get to Antigua for Angela’s granddaughter’s birthday (2/2) or John Nunn’s latest calculation of their arrival time (2/1). Just then a beautiful Marlin leapt from the water onto the deck of the boat. Now Angela and her brother, Cliff, went deep sea fishing twice in November, and nothing nearly that lovely graced their poles, let alone hopped upon the deck. Franck and Angela put the fish into a bucket of water, to keep him alive. It was such a beautiful fish; they decided take this moment as a photo opportunity. Both of them took pictures with the beautiful fish in the bucket. Apparently the dehydrated food isn’t that bad, because they decided that the fish needed to be free; off he must go to be with his friends and family, unlike Angela and Franck.
After saying their goodbyes, they tossed the fish back into the ocean. As he was being thrown back, he looked at them with his big dark eyes, as if to say, I jumped on your boat for a reason. He hit the water and Franck and Angela smiled anticipating their fish’s reunion with his family, feeling all warm and fuzzy inside watching the fish swim away, when all of the sudden a bigger fish came and gobbled their fish right up. And then they knew the reason why he had come to them in the first place……..music fading……“The Circle of Life…..”
