by Lisa Moore
In February of 1982, the gigantic oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast ofNewfoundland .
All 84 men on board drowned. Overnight, Helen O’Mara, happily married mother of
three (and pregnant with her fourth) becomes a widow. Helen must contend with
the sudden loss of her husband and find the strength to carry on and raise her
children by herself.
Moore brilliantly conveys Helen’s loneliness after Cal ’s
death and her struggle to be a decent mother. She and Cal had been young
sweethearts and very much in love when they married. Her memories and thoughts
of Cal evoke a strong, tender
relationship.
Devastated when that is taken from her, Helen seems to be in shock for awhile and feels cut off from everyone else, that she is "outside" or "banished". But she doesn't want the children to know what has happened to her. At all costs they must think that everything is all right, that she is all right and that she will continue to look after them, and so she does homework with them, does her chores and housework …
Moore ’s description
of the men’s drowning is harrowing. Although this is a fictionalized version of
the events of that night, her account tallies with the reported facts. Lack of
adequate training in handling emergencies and in evacuation of the rig, led
inevitably to the final, drastic conclusion. When the rig finally went down, at
least some of the men got into the lifeboats, and rescue boats arrived from
other rigs in the vicinity. But the violence of the storm, and the extreme
cold, prevented any rescue attempts from succeeding. They were unable to pull
anyone out of the water. They simply had to watch as the men died, and there
was nothing they could do. It is hard to read these passages without weeping.
Moore 's success with this
book is attributable to her beautiful, heartfelt writing. We get drawn
into the story from the first page and relive the tragedy of the accident
through Helen’s recollections. We feel a connection with her as we get swept up
in her own story. Whether we see her in the present, or as she thinks about the
past, we always know what she is thinking and we understand her feelings. Her
struggle to get on with life and deal with loneliness and hardship are things
we can all relate to and Moore ’s
realistic portrayal makes Helen come alive. As we leave her behind we see some
hope for the future, and for that I am glad.
In February of 1982, the gigantic oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of
Somehow Helen had
picked up the idea that there was such a thing as love, and she had invested
fully in it. She had summoned everything she was, every little tiny scrap of
herself, and she’d handed it over to Cal and said: This is
yours.” (p. 49)
Devastated when that is taken from her, Helen seems to be in shock for awhile and feels cut off from everyone else, that she is "outside" or "banished". But she doesn't want the children to know what has happened to her. At all costs they must think that everything is all right, that she is all right and that she will continue to look after them, and so she does homework with them, does her chores and housework …
Helen folded laundry.
Matching socks was an act that looked very much like matching socks. She looked
exactly as though she were in the world … And when she was done there would be
an actual pile of socks.” (p. 21)
Of course, the more she pretends and the
longer this goes on, the better she gets at it. But her children also become
more sophisticated and harder to fool, so she has to do more and more, eventually
working, sewing, taking up yoga, fixing the house… All of this leads her back
to being in the world and not “outside” any more.
Through Helen’s
personal struggle we also gain some understanding of the devastating effect the
accident had on the community. Cal ’s
death leaves Helen, their children and his own parents, bereft and abandoned.
When Helen’s father-in-law calls to tell her about identifying Cal ’s
body, we feel their sorrow as they talk or don’t talk on the telephone. The
silences between them are as eloquent as their speech. But 84 men died that
night and each one — husband, son, father, uncle or friend — left a hole in the
lives of those left behind.
The
men on the Seaforth Highlander saw the men in the water…The ropes are frozen,
the men on board the Highlander were telling the men in the water. The men on
the Highlander were compelled to narrate all their efforts so that the dying
men would know unequivocally that they had not been abandoned…And there must
have come a moment, Helen thinks, when all this shouting back and forth was no
longer about turning the event around, because everybody on both sides knew
there would be no turning it around. The men in the water knew they would die
and the men on board knew the men in the water would die. But they kept on
trying anyway.
And
then all the shouting was just for company. Because who wants to watch a man
being swallowed by a raging ocean without yelling out to him. They had shouted
to the men in the water. They had tried to reach the men with grappling hooks.
They saw them and then they did not see them. It was as simple as that. (pp.
272-274)