Monday, September 9, 2024
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Eric was a cousin of mine and a good man. I’m so sorry he’s gone. He will be missed especially by Leslie. He rescued me once when we were younger about 60 years ago. My family used to go often on a Sunday to visit Wilola Beach which is beside the Ottawa River near Fitzroy Harbour. We visited other members of the Thompson family - Aunt Ann, Uncle Eldon, Eric and Ron Mulligan and Uncle John and Aunt Helen, Wendy and Sheila Thompson and sometimes Uncle Harry’s family, Auntie Gwen’s family and my Aunt Hazel. My Mom was Kay and my Dad, Jim and my two brothers Colin and Norm Kearney. We had quite a gang sometimes and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. There were friends of my cousins to meet also. One day when I was about 16, I think, I was on the raft on the river ( which was a crazy thing to do because I couldn’t swim) and one of the neighbours boys pushed my off the raft into about 11 feet of water. I could hear a voice above saying “ She can’t swim”. My inner voice told me not to panic, kick my legs and you’ll go up and someone will help you get to the raft. Eric was younger and smaller than me but he was in the water, waiting for me. If I had panicked, the both of us would have drowned but Eric rescued me and got me to the dock safely. We kids kept this incident quiet but it happened and thanks to Eric, I lived to see another day.
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