TREASURE CAY COMMUNITY STUNNED

February 2001 Table of Contents

TREASURE CAY COMMUNITY STUNNED
Bill & Francine Durrell

The following are excerpts from Morton Jerome Kaplan's Memorial Service held at the Treasure Cay Community Centre on 8th January. They are taken from the tributes spoken by Sally and Phil Cappello. Although specifically related to Mort Kaplan, they also reflect the community's feelings for Rose Mary Roberts.

"We are here today to celebrate the life of Mort Kaplan. When Kay came to
Phil and me and asked us to organise a memorial service for Mort, we knew immediately what the theme should be: Love.

"That is was what Mort was all about. He loved people and people loved him. He had this incredible zest of life and a generous spirit. Think of the
many times, more than we can count, when he flew people off the island who needed medical help.

"As a community we are stunned and reeling from two sudden deaths in as many days. Words have become inadequate. But the power of love we all have for this place and for each other is more powerful than words. It was that power you saw in Mort's life."

Phil then spoke and said, "As most of you know, Mort was my fishing buddy. We spent lots of hours on the water together. I would often stop at Mort's for coffee in the morning and he would be sitting in his swivel chair with one leg over the arm listening to the weather and say, 'Where do you think we should fish today?'

"'Think it's good enough to go out side or do you want to take the little tin
boat?' And that was how Mort spent his last day - out fishing. I was given
a reading I would like to share with you.

"I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength and I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and the sky come down to mingle with each other.

"Then someone at my side says, 'There, she's gone!' Gone where?
Gone from my sight - that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and
spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of
living freight to the place of destination.

"Her diminished size is in me, not in her; and just at the moment when
someone at my side says, 'There, she's gone!' there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: 'There she comes!'

"In closing, I once read if the only prayer you said in your whole life was
'thank you', that would suffice. So I would like to say, thank you for a
friend like Mort. I will miss you."

The following is the last e-mail that was on Mort's computer.

What a great day. Woke up this morning and there was not as much as a
whisper of wind blowing. The sky was beautiful and the water clear. Since
we had been told by the shortwave radio weather to expect this kind of day, we had made plans to start fishing about 8:30 and on time my fishing
buddies showed up - Phil Cappello, Karl Kliem and Tom Bailey. Tom is new in TC and is building a home with his family at Rock Point. I don't normally
like to fish four in a boat, but on a calm day it is no problem Now the
fun begins.

Three wahoo and one small yellow fin tuna. What a beautiful day. To make
the day even more perfect, I changed the dressing on my leg (which I
do every two weeks) and to my pleasure all the ulcers are healed. I have
no remaining ulcers as of this minute. Isn't that great?

Now for the topper. It is Steffi Kliem's 30th birthday and her family is
taking a group of us via the ferry boat to Bluff House for dinner. It
promises to be a gorgeous moonlight night. What a great way to end a
beautiful day.

Mort.

On the way to the ferry an automobile accident took Mort's life.

February 2001 Table of Contents