The Wreath

It started last year when John Gaughan decided, in honor of Kim, to set a funeral wreath out to sea from the beach in Longboat Key. He and a few others swam out a distance from the beach and when they were sure the wreath would not go back to the beach they set it free to go to sea.

This past week Bob Meagher decided to duplicate that ceremony with a wreath for Debbie. There were about thirty of us watching from the beach as Bob brought the wreath down to the shore. Mitchel and his son, Colton, said they would accompany him in the swim. Bob wanted to go alone but Mitch overruled him. Bob was wearing a large, heavy shirt that had a picture of Debbie painted on it.

Just before sunset they set out, Bob insisted on handling the wreath. While swimming out Mitch noticed that Bob was having some trouble swimming with one arm and pushing the wreath forward. He offered to do some of that work but Bob refused. He was crying and very emotional about doing this. Mitch and Damon started to keep one arm under Bob because they could see he was tiring. It was obvious that the heavy paint on the shirt was pulling Bob down and Mitch told him to take it off. He would not take it off, he wanted to do this his way.

Whenever the wreath was released it came back to them and they were forced to swim farther out. By this time Bob was getting very weak but he was determined to continue, and to do it without yielding the wreath to Mitchel. It was then that Mitchel realized that Bob did not care if he drowned in this heroic act for Debbie. A few times Bob was going down but Mitch and Damon held him up by his bathing suit. He was swallowing water but they kept him up. Finally, the wreath drifted away from them and they started back for the shore. Mitch told me: "If he had have gone out there by himself he would not have come back."