As a 14-year-old girl, Diane Grant and her mom were about to drive away from Steveston Harbour when she looked back at her fisherman dad, Don Grant, on the boat he owned and skippered.
She recalled seeing the lights on in the galley of his gillnetter, Mardi II – named after her mom, Marge, and herself – and remembered how cozy it looked that day in May, 1970.
That was the last time Grant saw her father.
Just a few days later, the Mardi II went down in stormy seas off the north-western tip of Vancouver Island, with Grant, 55, and his two crew members, Vancouver’s John Piatocha and his son Morley Piatocha, missing, presumed drowned.
Like many of their fellow fishers who have perished at sea, the Piatocha father and son were memorialized on the Fishermen’s Needle at Garry Point Park in Steveston.
But, for reasons unknown, Grant’s name has been conspicuous by its absence.
That was until Barb Hallgren, a niece of Diane – whose last name is now Grant Renwick – got to work contacting the City of Richmond about getting her father’s name on the memorial.
And just a few weeks ago, Diane went down to Garry Point Park to see “Donald Grant” etched onto the Needle, 52 years after he and his crew were lost at sea.
“It made me cry when I first saw it. The sense of loss is still very much there. That will never go away,” Diane told the Richmond News.
“But I do feel so honoured that he has now been remembered. And it’s nice to have somewhere to go to talk to him.
“I’ve been down several times already.”
Fisherman's daughter noticed omission 10 years ago
Diane said she has no idea why her dad’s name was missing from the memorial, an oversight that she first noticed about 10 years ago while visiting Steveston..
She said she and family members had talked about getting it corrected, but it was only when her Richmond resident niece Hallgren got to work on it this year that the ball got rolling.
“I didn’t know where to start so Barb (Hallgren) did all the work on that, which as just wonderful,” added Diane.
She also recalled a touching coincidence a couple of years ago when her daughter, Courtney – a nurse at Nanaimo General Hospital – was treating an elderly patient in some form of medical distress.
“Afterwards, this patient mentioned he was a fisherman, to which Courtney said, ‘oh, my grandfather was a fisherman,’” said Diane.
“He asked what her grandfather’s name was, and when she told him, he said, ‘you’re Don Grant’s granddaughter?’”
As it turned out, the patient that night was a member of the rescue party out looking for the missing Mardi II that fateful day in May, 1970.
“He said he remembered it like yesterday,” said Diane.
“Courtney asked him if he would talk to me. We spoke on the phone and told me the story about the whole search and rescue, right up to the next day.
“He said ‘who would have known Don Grant’s granddaughter saved my life!’ I’ve never really had any closure. I lost my dad at 14 and never knew much about that day. So it helped a bit with some closure.”
Sense of loss still there
Diane said, despite 52 years having passed, she still feels the loss of her dad.
“My father had salt water in his veins, not blood, I swear. There was nowhere he would rather be than on that boat,” she added.
“We moved to the mainland and Dad began fishing out of Steveston…this community is a deeply-rooted close one of fishermen and families.
“I am so grateful to the City of Richmond for this beautiful memorial. What is profound to me when I read the inscriptions is that there are so many boats but, if you look deeper…many (names) are the same.
“It’s not just one family member who has been lost, it’s fathers and sons and daughters and wives. Fishing is a family affair.”
.jpg;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
