Notebook
As this difficult year, characterised by social distance and disconnection, comes to an end I’d like to share a story which created a wonderful memory and celebrates the power of connection.
Andy and Sarah Lawrence live in England near Buxton in the beautiful Derbyshire Dales. Andy’s family roots are in the parish of Rathdowney where I live and he and Sarah regularly join our masses via the webcam. Last May, Andy told me of the death of his friend Richard Guilford in Weymouth on the South coast of England. He asked if we could have Mass celebrated here from our church so that Richard’s family could participate as they were unable to travel to Weymouth for his funeral. Richard’s story is a mixture of sadness and joy.
Fish factory
In the late 1980s when Richard was in his 20s he took time off from studies and went to work in a fish factory in the little town of Sudavik on the west coast of Iceland. While in Sudavik Richard had a romantic relationship with a young local girl. He left Iceland when his working visa expired totally unaware that he was to become a father. His daughter Linda was born some months later. Linda’s mother married a local man and they had another little girl.
On 16 January 1995, at 6.25 am a 400 metres wide avalanche hit the village of Sudavik, destroying fifteen homes. Emergency services and the local people of Sudavik searched desperately for those who were missing. After about six hours of being buried beneath the avalanche little five-year-old Linda was found alive by a search dog called Hnota. Next to her was the body of her little eighteen-month-old sister. Fourteen people were killed in the village and eight of them were children. Linda was the youngest child to survive but she had lost not only her sister but also her grandparents and her best friend. The avalanche in Sudavik was the greatest tragedy to hit Iceland in its history and the whole country mourned.
Avalanche
Sometime after the avalanche Linda was told for the first time that her father was a man who lived in England. When Linda became 18 in 2007 she decided to search for her birth father. As the youngest survivor of the Sudavik avalanche Linda’s search for her father became a story of national interest and while on a visit to Iceland, Andy and Sarah Lawrence became familiar with Linda’s search and decided to help. In a previous job Andy had assisted people in tracking down long lost relatives and he hoped his experience might help Linda find her dad. Andy and Sarah’s intervention was to be crucial. The National TV broadcaster commissioned a two-part documentary on the search without knowing what the outcome would be. For Andy and Sarah it was a huge challenge and it involved them trawling through numerous official records and newspaper archives. Their search finally brought them to the seaside town of Weymouth. The whole town got involved and eventually, ten years after her search began, Linda was reunited with her dad Richard Guilford. Linda discovered not only her father but also her brother Jake and, having lost her grandparents in the avalanche, she was overjoyed to meet her English grandmother. Richard was thrilled to meet his daughter but also to realise he was a grandfather to Linda’s children back in Iceland. I gather there wasn’t a dry eye across Iceland when the reunion of daughter and father was aired on national television and across the front page of several newspapers.
Walk again
That was 2017. Sadly, like his daughter Linda, Richard’s life had not been easy. He had both of his legs amputated below the knee but had successfully begun to walk again, thanks to his prosthetic limbs which ironically, were made in Iceland. Linda and her dad very quickly built a close relationship. Richard travelled to Iceland to meet his grandchildren and he and Linda skyped each other every week. Sadly on May 19, Richard died suddenly having suffered a massive heart attack. The last three years of his life were filled with a joy he had not previously known.
We celebrated Richard’s funeral Mass here in our parish church. His family and friends joined us, virtually, from Weymouth, Derbyshire and of course, Iceland. Thank God for webcams, thank God for the power of connection.
A thought for the New Year
Though we live in a world that dreams of ending
that always seems about to give in
something that will not acknowledge conclusion
insists that we forever begin.
…from ‘Begin’ by Brendan Kennelly