I had the opportunity to speak with Bill Vigars this weekend. I thought I would relay a few of the stories Bill shared with me about the Marathon of Hope Canada Day Weekend 31 years ago. Undoubtedly most of the eloquence, humour, kindness and humility Bill told the stories with will be lost in my translation. I apologize in advance…

After meeting the Governor General, where Terry, Bill, Doug and Darrell stood on a marble floor drinking pink lemonade from champagne glasses along side the kids from Reach For the Top (who were all wearing shirts and ties, Terry and the gang – having just come off the road - were in shorts and sweaty t-shirts), the plan was to then head over to Parliament Hill where they might get a chance to meet some high-level government officials. Around the same time Bill was asked if Terry had any interest in doing the opening kick-off for the Ottawa Roughrider/Saskatchewan Roughrider football game. The problem was the game was at the same time Terry was to be on Parliament Hill. Bill went over and asked Terry what he thought, and as Bill tells it, Terry’s decision was easy – Parliament Hill never stood a chance.

As they got to the stadium Bill and Terry were taken to the basement where Terry could practice some kick-offs - both were nervous. Terry was unsure he would be able to properly kick the ball (the mechanics of his leg didn’t exactly lend itself to kicking a football off a tee), Bill was nervous about the reception Terry would receive (as I’m sure Terry was). In fact Bill even remembers saying to himself “please let some of these people know who he is”. Before long someone came down and yelled “its time”. They walked up the tunnel to field level where fans got their first look at Terry. Before his named was even announced, or he was even close to mid field, 16,000 people were on their feet giving Terry a thunderous ovation, an ovation that seemed to last forever. It looked like some of these people knew who Terry was after all!

The Captains of both teams came out to meet Terry and shake his hand, all of them saying how proud they were of him, and that even though they were professional athletes, not one of them could do what he was doing. Bill also remembers looking up and down the rows of players, every one of them having tears in their eyes. 

I wonder how proud Terry must have felt hearing that ovation. Not for himself, but for the seemingly impossible and selfless feat he had undertaken. It was working -  the months and months of training, the thousands of kilometers he had already ran on those cold and lonely highways. The countless town hall meetings, the dozens and dozens of roadside pay phone calls to journalists. The Marathon of Hope was working. The Nation was watching, the Nation was responding, the Nation was with him.

As I was listening to Bill tell me these wonderful stories (some of which I can’t repeat!) I couldn’t help thinking to myself “he was there, like, he was really there.” I wondered if he, Terry, Darrell and Doug had any idea the impact their journey would have. How could they have? I thought of the four of them sitting in some roadside diner, Terry having one of his famous meals, the four of them laughing, joking, - not knowing how many people they would touch, not knowing how many lives they would save, not knowing how much hope they would give people all over the world. Then I think of 31 years later and my eyes watering as I tell my 7 year old daughter the stories that Bill had told me, and I think of the beautiful legacy that Terry and his friends started 31 years ago, a legacy almost every Canadian will pass to their children, a legacy that will be passed on for generations. 

“He knew Terry?” my daughter asks, speaking of Bill.

“Yes, he was with him almost every day he ran” I say.

“Ohhhhh, daddy that’s cool”

“Yeah, that is pretty cool isn’t it”

… 

I’ll end with this…

As the gang was leaving Ottawa someone noticed a newspaper box on the corner that  had Terry on the cover, which up until this point they had never seenThey pulled over, Bill jumped out of the van and put a coin in. In his excitement, instead of taking one paper he took them all! Bill being Bill he didn’t feel good about this and called the paper the next day and told them that he took a few too many papers. They laughed and said. “No problem Bill, no problem”.