The man was dying of cancer.
That was the gloomy assessment of the caller who had called to rent one of our fishing boats.
Stooped over his walker, the elderly man slowly made his way down the ramp to the dock. With the assistance of his friends, he took his place near the boat’s stern while his friends returned to their car to retrieve the fishing gear and picnic lunch.
He and I began to talk.
Since I am hard-of-hearing and his voice was quiet, soft, and gentle, I pulled up a chair close to him.
“Many times, I fished here on this lake, growing up,” he said.
“Got my first boat – all on my own – when I was 19,” he continued as he held out his hands to show the size of some of the trout he’d pulled from the lake.
He also mentioned that he had his eye on a good-sized boat with an outboard engine, but he figured he’d buy a smaller boat because of his condition.
All the while he smiled – his bewhiskered face crinkling into a grin as memories flooded back – as he talked about his dreams of future fishing excursions.
On that beautiful morning – there wasn’t a whisper of a ripple on the water – I was reminded of the proverb “A joyful mind makes age to flourish.”
Upon the return of his friends, I asked “Who’s the captain?”
“That would be me,” my cancer friend said with his ever present smile.
After steering the large platform boat out of the marina, I hopped off at the end of the dock and watched him gently ease away out onto the lake for what turned out to be his last fishing trip.
I couldn’t see his face, but I would bet he was smiling.
What other Bill’s Boathouse stories have you got?
That was a story reminiscent of my own father who died at 94. He so loved to go fishing. In his later years as he became weaker he needed a special winch that fit on the boat in order to reel in his catch when he went to Alaska to fish for halibut. He had remarkable courage and determination. He was still talking about going back up to fish in AK just before he died. I hope his version of heaven is being out on the water fishing. I have his favorite pole. Time to get out on the water!