Goodbye Captain Phil
of the F/V Cornelia Marie
Picture From F/V Cornelia Marie Website
“When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.”--William Shakespeare
Beginning in April for the last five seasons, my young daughter and myself have been glued to the television watching Discovery Channel's brilliant show: "Deadliest Catch." We were in the midst of a cross country move from our beloved California to rural Virginia when we discovered the show by happenstance while staying in a hotel one evening in between looking at new homes.
We're both adrenaline junkies and although we're women, we instantantly related to the lifestyle--minus the copious amounts of Red Bull and cigarrettes used by the Crab Fishermen to keep them going on their 36-hour grinding workdays in the most impossible conditions known to man. For those of you who don't know about the "Deadliest Catch," it's a show that documents the deadliest job on earth: Crab fishing on the Bering Sea. It has been an education, and it has been a thrilling ride to see the grit, courage, teamwork, and love that enable the crews to bring in the crab season-after-season.
For our family, it was the dynamics between the men serving on the F/V Cornelia Marie and the F/V Northwestern that we most related to. Like so many fishing vessels on the Bering Sea, these boats are staffed by families. The dynamics between the brothers, fathers, and sons were always the most entertaining for us to watch on the F/V Cornelia Marie, as I'm sure, the family dynamics between my daughter and I are entertaining to those who know us.
In the time that he spent teaching his sons to be deckhands on one of the premier crab fishing vessels on the Bering Sea, Phil Harris taught all our children about the value of a fair day's work, that there's no such thing as a short-cut, that cutting corners just shortchanges the individual, and that ultimately, family is what it's all about.
Two years ago Captain Phil Harris nearly died onboard his ship when a blood clot passed through his lungs while he was out at sea during a massive storm.
After leaving the boat to stay in the hospital, and receiving a grim prognosis that kept him off the water for part or all of King Crab season last year, I ached for Phil as a parent, sending his precious sons to sea under another man's guidance. When Phil finally was cleared to go back to the job that he loved, I had a strong sense of foreboding. Phil Harris was living on borrowed time--and knew it. At the end of the season, he presented his sons with beautiful Crab necklaces, acknowledging his pride of the skills Jake and Josh Harris had developed under Phil's watchful eye.
During an episode in the past, Phil once said that he thought he'd die out at sea. He was partly right. He had a devastating stroke in his cabin on January 30, 2010, while the boat was delivering their crab catch at St. Paul Island, AK.
He and his Deadliest Catch cameraman were Medivaced to a hospital where his prognosis was devastating. The stroke left him paralyzed on his left side--and it was a life-threatening stroke, with a grim prognosis.
Most remarkably, Phil came out of a medically-induced coma he wasn't supposed to emerge from, after a risky operation he wasn't supposed to survive, and ended up spending his last days on the planet advising his sons, enjoying his friends and family, and continuing to live life to its fullest.
Although Phil could not speak, he wrote a note to Todd Stanley, his cameraman, suggesting that they resume filming the show. Evidently he felt his story needed an ending, and after much conversation at Discovery, the producers shot an ending we will all see in the summer. Phil tragically died on February 9, 2010.
Now it's time to realize that we, like Phil, all live on borrowed time. What can you learn from the brave man we knew as Captain Phil Harris? How will you spend the next year, the next two years, the next two minutes?
It's all a gift. Life is a gift. Love makes life worth living. What's truly important, isn't that obvious. What's essential, is invisible to the eye, as the author of "Little Prince" once wrote. Perhaps one of Phil Harris's most important legacies was a reminder for us all to not waste our borrowed time.
It is ironic that I wrote these words a few months before I learned that my Richard is himself living on borrowed time. May we also live these last days together with love and dignity.
The entire Harris clan is in our prayers--especially Jake. I hope you find success in a 12-step recovery.
