'I'm with the Father         
He's out on the waves
He's riding the water
We're riding the waves 
to the sea.'

'Mercy Street'~Peter Gabriel

Precious memories
words few laughter long
those days on the Columbia
At home on the water
life ebbed and flowed in you
There were mysteries
of you we never knew
but those of the world
you taught us well
You once said to your wife,
"I'm not the ordinary man
people think I am, Mama."

Stern salt with steady hand
you steered us straight
but thought you went wrong
Crisis at every turn of the wheel
with eight souls under your watch
Only twice did I see you crushed
by the weight of life's anchor
against that huge heart in the hold

You see us now partly broken
but not destroyed on these rocks
Time gives balance to the scales
The silt has sifted to the bottom
Grains of sand from your hand
teaming with life
have found their way to the shore
And here we stand with our children
these souls who remain
still in love with no ordinary man

(c) Linda Gayton 2006

Berle Wilson-Figgins, Sr sailed into this world in 1921 and rode out to the great sea on the Hale-Bopp comet in 1995.