***
Looking down at the old photo he couldn’t help but remember Anna Belle as she’d been the summer of the first regatta. Blonde, only five or six, running around on the beach in a red, ruffled swimsuit. She wore a necklace with lady bugs around her neck. She spent the afternoons playing on the beach, but never in the water. They all remembered Anna Belle; she was the first person to survive a formerly deadly cancer, one people died from within months.
The first Newport Memorial Regatta was born in 1999 when Anna Belle had just finished her last treatment—it was all over the International news when the new treatment worked. They followed every story, read every word, they were stalking her, but with no ill intent. A reporter leaked that she staying a hotel near Newport Beach, California to recover before getting on a plane back to Framlingham in Suffolk. They had only wanted to see her from afar—living—the regatta was their excuse to take a holiday to the California coast in the U. S. and spend each day watching her as she played on the beach.
They gathered around, removing the dead leaves and old flowers from the begonias. Soon they discovered small notes, all written on the same faded and yellowed pieces of paper from a hotel notepad.
They were prayers and letters from each member of the regatta, left behind so many years before. It was time. Time to open them and remember. They’d all agreed.
Words seemed to float up and out into the room which had gone still and quiet. Some stood together, but most found a chair, a windowsill, a corner to sit and read, to think and in the end—to grieve again.
“Dear St. Anthony,
I need your help. I can’t stand the pain of losing her anymore and I’m cursing the Lord’s name each and every day. I’m lost…”
“Catherine my darling, my love—
I still think of you each and every day—silly things—”
“…I still garage your car because I want it to somehow last forever…”
“…I love you…Oh, God, this hurts so much…”
***
The Newport Memorial Regatta was created as a memorial race off Newport Beach in California. It was an event to remember loved ones who died from cancer. In the regatta, you can make or buy your boat, but either way, you use your arms a pole, an oar, anything to paddle, but no motors are allowed. One guy was the boat; his legs came out the bottom with rubber seals to keep the water out and when he got in and out of the water he just stood up and walked, boat and all
Summer Shorts Page 18