Don Power, our Sales Manager, is originally from Newfoundland, so he has been closely watching news about the tragic helicopter crash that took the lives of 17 people. When I asked Don about the tragedy, he wrote the following in an email:

"I just read that thousands are expected to pack the largest church in Newfoundland for a memorial service for the victims and their families. They did the same thing a hundred years ago after every spring seal hunt and again in 1982 when the Ocean Ranger oil rig went down with all hands aboard. Go to any community in Newfoundland and there are often memorials and plaques in homage to people who have lost their lives on the sea. Whether or not you ever plied the ocean yourself, this becomes a living breathing part of your makeup when you are a Newfoundlander. Where else could three friends grow up together and two of them become bonafide ships' captains? I'm the computer nerd in that group of 3, so directly or indirectly we Newfoundlanders ALL have a profound bittersweet identity with the sea and at times like these we mourn not only for these victims, but the hundreds (thousands?) who've gone before and the inevitable, unfortunate folk who will meet a similar fate in days yet to come." (Don Power, March 18, 2009)

Thank you for those words Don and for letting us publish them on our blog. This post will be of no consolation to those who lost loved ones, but it is the most fitting tribute I could arrange for those brave souls who lost their lives and the loved ones they left behind.