By Tyler Marr

‘Her gifts were friendship, love’: bench placed in memory of Marina Thorpe

Sep 10, 2017 | 2:20 PM

Her gifts to the community were that of friendship, love and small remembrances. She was humble, engaged and had a generous spirit.

These were just a handful of the kind words of remembrance spread by the few dozen in attendance for a memorial unveiling Saturday. A park bench with a plaque bearing the name of Marina Thorpe, whose life was tragically taken in 2015, was shown. It is situated near a ravine mere steps from her old home on Helm Crescent.

“It was a really nice thing that Dalelene and everybody did,” Marina’s son Adam said after the unveiling. “It is a nice memorial. You can come back here years later, have a look at and have a moment and remember.”

He recalled routine outings with his mother in the park, be it walking to school or sitting and watching fireworks on Canada Day. Adam described her as humble, saying she “was always the one who wouldn’t want any recognition for anything.”

“She would always do stuff to help other people, you know, and would want to kind of do it secretly without people really knowing.”

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The idea to place the memorial was years in the making. It was initiated by long-time friend Dalelene Yelland, who grew up on a farm near Marina’s outside the hamlet of Chelan. The two attended school together and Yelland had a close tie with her family and friends. 

She recalled pulling out her address book and fielding calls to the wide array of friends and community groups Marina was involved with, such as the Red Hat Society, proposing the idea for a memorial.

“I ended up meeting people that were so over the top when it comes to providing their thoughts,” she said, adding this led to the establishment of the Group of Eight planning committee behind the bench.

“If there is anything positive that comes out of this, I think what we have obtained is friendships with a number of people…and also with family members we didn’t really know.”

With Marina an avid lover of the outdoors and nature, a bench was viewed as an appropriate memorial. Though shy on memories outdoors, Yelland told a story of her generosity, saying Marina always seemed to have a sense of what peoples needs were, even if they were very small.

“She visited me one time and I didn’t have pot holders by the stove and I had just redecorated. She came by about a week later and brought me red pot holders,” she explained. “We always think things have to be big. Her gifts were friendship, love and small remembrances.”

Though Marina enjoyed being out and about, Yelland said she would have much rather sat on the bench and conversed.

“Our hope is that people will look at the bench in that way. This is a place for us to enjoy as Marina would have,” she said.

This was a thought shared by Adam’s fiancé Nicole Hillier. Though she only met Marina a handful of times, everyone she had spoken with expressed nothing but love and respect for the 64-year-old.

“I feel like this bench is good because it is in one of the good neighbourhood walking parks and so many people remember her for all the things that she did and they can come here and reflect,” she said. “They can come here and remember what the impact she has had on their life positively.”

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr