Wind Walker
Dear Editor: Please share the tribute I penned to the Wind Walker captain and crew, as my way of expressing the sorrow of our recent tragic loss. May these words console and help heal others as far as the reach of your publication, and beyond.
‘‘The sea is our mother. Both our creator and our maker. Those of us who live on this island, surrounded by ocean on all sides, who pull our living off hooks, or from nets, gifts from her deep, understand this more intimately than most.
She claims some of our own each year.
How unique the grief of an unanswered mayday call is. Knowing in our hearts that the outcome is likely grim, yet few hold so fiercely to hope as a fisherman’s family.
She calls.
We answer.
Always.
Each time a sailor leaves shore, they know this might be the final voyage.
Few wave “goodbye” with such reverence.
We, here, on this little rock know a truth so deep in our bones that it salts our blood and tears.
The sea is our mother.
Both our creator and our maker.
She will be here long after we are gone.
May the crew of the F/V Wind Walker sail on. May their nets be full, their fishing grounds calm, and their memory live forever, with the knowledge they went out following the call of adventure, in the spirit of all who followed before and all who will follow after.’’
With gratitude,
Ida Dawn Peters, Sitka
