SouthShoreNow.ca

Bayswater becomes final resting place

Lisa Brown
Lighthouse staff

 BLANDFORD - A year after the crash of Swissair Flight 111, Bayswater becomes this week the final resting place for the 229 people killed in the disaster.

 The unidentified remains of the victims were interred Tuesday with a private memorial service for the families scheduled for September 1. The year of heartache has created everlasting bonds between the people in nearby South Shore communities and those around the world who lost loved ones when the jet crashed off the coast late on September 2 of last year.

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 Now, those who were first to respond to the disaster - the fishermen who took to their boats and the residents who took blankets to the shores - will take on a new responsibility. They will be the caretakers of the grave and memorial that families will visit in years to come.

 It's a task most in the community have accepted as right, according to the municipal councillor for the district. While the anniversary events scheduled for September 1 and 2 will be sad, bringing back memories of the tragedy a year ago, Marilyn Publicover says people in the area know the memorial is where it should be.

 "That was where it started. That's where the seed had been sown the night that it all happened," she says. "At 10:30 at night, that's where they went. They went to the beach thinking if there was a plane there they could bring [the survivors] into the beach."

 Mrs. Publicover was in bed reading when she heard the crash. Her husband Lamont is a firefighter so he was quickly en route to the shore. She got up, gathered food supplies from the cupboard and headed to the community centre.

 At that stage no one knew the extent of the tragedy. Reports escalated to 150 on board, then later to the true figure. Before long, it was apparent that finding survivors was unlikely.

 But in the months following the crash, communities along the South Shore found other ways to help. Some with boats joined the search. Others fed hungry military and search and rescue teams. Some prayed for the families and recovery workers. A few, like the Publicovers, hosted the families of those who died.

 Along the way, the 229 victims of Swissair Flight 111 were accepted into the community. Although not born here and never residents, they died here and will be buried here. The connection to their families will remain.

 "It will be like a family memorial to me as I go there and see those people," Mrs. Publicover says.

 At the request of officials, she's organized 20 women from the surrounding communities to assist with the catering following the Bayswater memorial service Wednesday. She'll also be among the dignitaries greeting families at the Whalesback dedication later in the day.

 On September 2, she plans to attend the gathering at the World Trade and Convention Centre and the candlelight service on Citadel Hill.

 "I really feel I want to be part of it," Mrs. Publicover says. "I feel if I don't, then it's going to be something that I'll feel I'd like to have been part of.

 "Somebody may need somebody. I may be able to help and that will be something that I can say was my last thing I did."

 Above all else, she wants to ensure the victims' families leave Nova Scotia having found some comfort.

 "I hope they go back with a good feeling, a feeling of security that their loved ones are going to have the best that anybody could have," Mrs. Publicover says. "I think they'll go home and they're going to feel that there's some destination now. They can come back. They know where their loved ones are.

 "I personally feel that when they meet us and have the chance to mingle with the people in the community, then we can say we're going to be the best caretakers that you possibly can have, that we will look after them," she adds. "That's the feeling that I'd like them to have, as councillor and just as a person in the community, that they'll go back and say 'we couldn't have got better people to look after our loved ones.'"

 And while the people of the community may be tired of thinking and hearing about the crash, Mrs. Publicover says that's not because they don't care. The tragedy and the people affected by it will never be forgotten.

 In years to come, she's confident people from the community will visit the memorial on future anniversaries and throughout the year.

 "They want it to go away, but I don't think they would be very happy on September 2 if nobody thought of it. That's not going to happen," she says.