What do you do when your 85-year-old mom says she wants to buy a kayak?
After the initial shock wears off, you get in your car and drive 35 miles to the nearest sporting goods store.
Clara Cahill’s first kayak experience was at Seldovia, Alaska, in the early 1990s. She went in a single kayak with her daughter, Debrah Carlson, in saltwater. The second trip was in 2006 in Kenai Lake, Alaska, in a double kayak with her daughter.
Now, at age 96, Mom has more than 10 straight years of kayaking experience. She has managed quite well to make a kayak launch and paddle every summer since 2007.
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Because her husband had passed away, Mom spent two years not being able to get on the water. She couldn’t deal with motors, gas, trailers, etc. The only way to get back on the water was to get a kayak.
After discussing the pros and cons of the various kinds, she settled on the orange one. We bought straps to secure it to the top of the car and headed back to the lake. Mom help lift it off the car and carried it down to the dock. She had a kayak.
Her granddaughter, Darcy Cahill, and fiancé Matt Nickels from California came for a visit. Matt wanted to kayak and was struggling with just exactly how to get into the kayak while it was still sitting on the dock. Mom got up, walked over to her prized possession, lifted one end and slowly lowered it into the water. After positioning it so that she could simply step down into the kayak, she stepped in, grabbed the paddle off the dock and paddled out. She turned around, glided up to the steps that led up to the dock, stepped out of the kayak, climbed up the steps and handed the paddle to Matt. It was his turn.
The former tight end for the USC Trojans humbly accepted the paddle and proceeded to follow each of the steps Mom had so graciously demonstrated. His attempt was successful, but not quite as graceful.
These days, Mom doesn’t get into her kayak the same way. We’ve placed an old carpet runner that gradually slopes into Sweetwater Lake from the lawn at the side of our dock. We simply see to it that she gets in OK and then slowly shove her off, handing her the paddle that sits at the end of the dock as she passes by.
It’s really something to see her gracefully paddle her way out. She loves it when a neighbor or two across the cove is outside and she can stop and chat.
