Call it serendipity, call it fate. Today, for only the third time in as many months I tuned into CBC Radio. A show was about to start called The Late Show. The introduction caught my attention … a series that explores the extraordinary life stories of deceivingly ordinary Canadians.
To my amazement today’s episode turned out to be about one of my heroes. Patricia Van Tighem. Whilst on vacation in Canada back in 2000 I purchased her book The Bear’s Embrace. It tells the story of how Patricia and her husband Trevor were mauled by a grizzly bear. It also tells the story of Patricia’s struggle to deal with both physical and emotional damage caused by the attack.
In 2005 Patricia finally gave in to the bear’s embrace and I remember being saddened and blogging about it. To my amazement one of her relatives stopped by and commented on my post. Regrettably, neither my post or the comment have survived the various changes in platform. I do have hundreds of other posts, but not that one.
Back in January 2009, I commented on this loss at the same time as sharing a video of a speech I gave at my then Toastmasters Club. The speech tells a little of her story and is dedicated to her memory. After listening to CBC today I wanted to share the video once more.
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I remember that preparing and delivering the speech was very draining. Listening to CBC today was equally as draining: tears flowed. Especially today as it was the first time I heard Patricia’s voice. Yet I feel the same way I did when I decided to do the speech. I felt inspired by her story and compelled to share it given the opportunity. Today is another such opportunity.
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