Montrealers remember victims of one of the city’s worst maritime tragedies – Montreal | 24CA News
The water in Lake of Two Mountains on Montreal’s north shore was uneven Wednesday. It simply might need been July 13, 1954, the day 12 youngsters went out on a ship. One of them was Paula Millington, 6, Gail Millington Grant’s sister.
“The NCC, which is the Negro Community Centre had a camp and they went on a day picnic,” defined Millington Grant from her eating room whereas photos of her sibling.
A bus-load of them went to Île-Bizard for the day and somebody provided the youngsters a ship journey. But tragedy struck. The boat loaded with 17 youngsters capsized and 12 of them — 4 boys and eight women — together with Paula, perished. Millington Grant was simply two years previous.
“I don’t remember her,” she stated, her voice trembling. “I have a picture of her holding me.”
The drowning can also be inflicting Allison Saunders to replicate. Two of her mother’s cousins, Diane and Edwin Springer, have been additionally victims.
“I know my mom was there, know that my mom wanted to go on the boat, her mother had said ‘no,’ so she was spared,” Saunders instructed Global News. “Twelve kids. Like, that’s a lot of kids and it impacted a lot of people.”
What’s worse, she identified, hardly anybody talked about it as a result of again then they’d no help. But they’re attempting to vary that now as a result of, in line with her, it’s affecting the youthful era.
Her mother had deep emotions about it.
“She grew up with them and she was a mom, and she passed them on to me and then I had my kid feelings and I grew up and passed them on to my kids,” Saunders famous.
One manner Millington Grant is channeling her ache is spreading one easy message –train youngsters swim.
“I don’t understand. We teach basketball, we teach football, we teach soccer, all these other sports but we don’t teach them how to swim and it’s mandatory in the school system,” she noticed.
She hopes that message might be pushed residence on Sunday at a ceremony at Union United Church to commemorate the tragedy.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
