Thursday, April 20, 2023
...there are some beautiful souls that pass through this world and we are sometimes lucky enough to recognize our good fortune in spending time with them, and Kaz was one of them...About 20 or 30 years ago Kaz and a few of the folks from the Valley, visitors and their kids were on top of Babcock Hill and the local kids were jumping and sliding down the steep cliff side. I've heard that cliff has since collapsed...but Kaz, being the adventurous and fun loving guy that he was, decided that he'd like to try that too, so he suddenly hurled himself over the precipice. It became clear pretty quickly that experienced and fearless locals who are 14 are, well, different than a middle aged man of Kaz' particular year & model, even if his spirit is just as youthful. Long story short, after seriously panicked cries of "Save me, save me (and various other colourful and vivid language that you all can guess) and seeing his poor leg quivering from fear with one foot on a little protruding rock and one hand clinging to a tiny plant, (at this point, without an intentional flare for the dramatic, he was yelling "I can't hang on much longer!") we gathered long ropes and I ventured down the cliff in order to tie him up, rappel and belay him down. I spent a lot of time in gravel pits as a Metis kid, so this wasn't even my first rodeo, hehe, but Kaz was not what I would describe as a small man. A small crowd had gathered, and at some point someone driving by called 911 and a rescue helicopter arrived on scene. Kaz was already down and gone by that time, so I gathered up the ropes, whined about my injuries (Kaz accidentally booted me few good ones, hehe, the term sack of potatoes comes to mind), and we headed back to Kim's B & B where we were all celebrating New Year's Eve or something. Low and behold, the helicopter was overhead at exactly the 520 moment that I found Kaz and his New Zealand friend already sitting in the hot tub, drink in hand. The sight of him happily raising a toast in a hot tub, the helicopter sent to save him flying right above him and the big beautifully childish, happy, if somewhat sheepish grin on his lovely face will be with me forever! For years when we saw each other he would say "Hello! Thanks again for saving my life!", but while it really was a joke, it was just so sweet the way he acknowledged things...he was always so happy and made so many friends...sigh...such a beautiful person, I am glad to have known him, for real and for true, as Kyra would say.
