TUESDAY
K A M L O O P S
THIS WEEK Tuesday, July 31, 2012 X Volume 25 No. 61 www.kamloopsthisweek.com X 30 cents at Newsstands
ers, an Connie Mey er of b em original m itage er H s op lo the Kam when 8 9 s a Railroad, w ed away he pass r those with recently. Fo road and the rail e others in th s er ey M community, found e b n could ofte ont of his at work in fr achinist m metal lathe. herley/ George Wyc KTW
First Nations drummers perform a prayer as family members console each other and watch as emergency personnel search for a missing 12-year-old Kamloops girl, who drowned in Penticton’s Skaha Lake on Sunday, July 29. Mark Brett/Penticton Western News
Family shattered as daughter drowns
An independent life
By Kristi Patton By Michael Potestio STAFF REPORTER
reporter@kamloopsthisweek.com
C
ONNIE MEYERS NEVER WANTED A HELPING HAND. The 98-year-old Kamloops Heritage Railway (KHR) machinist gladly offered his assistance to anyone who sought it, but always insisted he could do his own work. “You [could] say he was a bit stubborn, but he was definitely his own man,” said Kamloops Heritage Railway president Glen Wideman. Fellow KHR volunteer Arthur Styles recalled that if Meyers were to trip and fall and someone offered to help him up, he’d chase that person away. Meyers was one of the first members of the Kamloops Heritage Railway, dedicating 18 years of his life to the KHR until he passed away on July 2, two years shy of becoming a centenarian. Bob Cheramy, another colleague of Meyers’, said in the last few years, Meyers had a hard time walking, used a crutch and had difficulty climbing stairs in the shop. This prompted his fellow volunteers to keep
an eye on him by calling or driving by his home to make sure he was all right. On June 28, Wideman said Meyers phoned and wasn’t feeling well. Meyers, a man known to never ask for help, was in need. Cheramy and another volunteer went to check on him at his North Kamloops home. Cheramy said Meyers had a hard time speaking, but they understood he was concerned about his property taxes. He asked the pair to take him to pay his taxes and then to the hospital. They took him to the hospital first and told him they’d take his taxes over to city hall. As they crossed Overlanders Bridge from Meyers’ home to the hospital, Meyers told them something. “He was talking a little bit and trying to make us understand something and the thing that we both heard as we’re crossing the bridge — and he’s looking at the water — he looked at me and he smiled a little bit and he said, ‘I’m waiting to die,’” Cheramy said.
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PENTICTON WESTERN NEWS
kpatton@pentictonwesternnews.com
The family of a 12-year-old girl from Kamloops who drowned in Penticton’s Skaha Lake on Sunday afternoon (July 29) is numb — and appalled with the lack of safety warnings at the popular swimming area. “It’s very dangerous and it’s shocking that it happened,” said a female, noting she was the sister of the girl who slipped under the water at 2:30 p.m. The female, who did not want her name published until all family members could be notified, was standing on the lakeshore with relatives, well after the
sun had set. Earlier, family members watched as the RCMP officers and search-and-rescue members scoured the area the girl was last seen, just west of where the Okanagan River channel spills into Skaha Lake. “She was messing around with her cousins doing handstands and she just slipped on the sand and went under,” the female said. Penticton RCMP Cpl. Don Wrigglesworth said the search operation quickly shifted from rescue to recovery, with the help of a police dive team and a Kamloopsbased RCMP helicopter. “It’s not a rescue
dive at this point,” he told KTW on Monday (July 30) afternoon. “It’s the recovery of a body to get some closure to the family.” Wrigglesworth said parts of Skaha Lake in the area near the channel are as deep as 100 feet. “It’s very wellsigned,” he said. “But, people go out past the buoys all the time.” According to the family, the 12-year-old girl had walked out to the yellow warning buoys and the water was very shallow. The female family member said the water was perhaps waist deep. X See FAMILY A17
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