Call it divine providence or a curious twist of fate, but to Marlyne Patch, acquiring her late father’s old canoe was something meant to be.
Patch and her husband Don lived in Maine for almost two decades before selling their home in Scarborough three years ago and moving to Oro Valley, Arizona. Their daughter still lives in Maine, so the couple returns every summer to the Old Orchard Beach Campground in an RV motor home to spend the summer close to family here.
However, this year’s visit is one that Patch is sure to remember for the rest of her life.
Growing up on Crystal Lake outside of Conway, New Hampshire, Patch has fond memories of her late father, Ellsworth Russell, and family outings on the lake in his canoe.
“He used it a lot for fishing on the lake,” Patch said. “He bought it secondhand from a game warden there and my brother Toby painted my father’s initials, ETR, on the canoe.”
The canoe is 15-feet long and a two-seater that is made of aluminum. It was built by Grumman Corporation in 1952 and Patch believes her father purchased the canoe sometime in 1955 and it was used right up until he died in 1989.
After her father’s death, the canoe was passed to her brother, who died earlier this year. Family members then sold the canoe and Patch had no idea who had bought it.
About mid-August, Patch’s granddaughter, Shelby Bernier, had to make a stop in Albany, New Hampshire, after finding out while driving that she had left her pocketbook at home. While in Albany, she spotted a yard sale taking place on a front lawn that contained some outdoor equipment, including a canoe.
“She told me she looked it over and to her amazement she recognized her great-grandfather’s canoe,” Patch said. “She called me and told me she knew it was grandpa’s canoe because his initials were still on it.”
On Aug. 21, Marlyne and Don Patch drove to New Hampshire and were able to talk the seller into letting them buy it for $290. He wanted $450, but let it go for less only because it had been her father’s canoe.
But the story doesn’t end there. At a family reunion last weekend in New Hampshire, Marlyne’s niece, Darlyne Sutton of Center Conway, New Hampshire, had another surprise for her.
It seems that Sutton had stored away and saved the original paddles used for the canoe by Ellsworth Russell when he passed away 28 years ago.
“She told me she had grandpa’s canoe paddles and wanted me to have them and I about fainted,” Patch said. “I don’t know what the odds are of finding both the canoe and paddles, but it was a very special moment.”
She said she remembers using the canoe and the paddles when she was a young girl like it was yesterday.
“I have such vivid memories of being on Crystal Lake with my dad and being in the canoe,” Patch said. “Somebody or something had a hand in all of this. Maybe it’s God or maybe it’s my father looking down from heaven and wanting me to have his canoe.”
And to make the situation even odder, Patch said she had been looking for a canoe or a kayak while visiting Maine this summer.
“We went to a few yard sales and to LL Bean, but I’ve found that these days canoes can cost between $400 and $500 dollars and are not made the way my father’s canoe was,” she said.
According to Patch, the canoe and paddles will now be passed down to her relatives when she dies so future generations of her family can use and enjoy them.
“It’s just a bizarre thing and has been on my mind all the time since it happened,” she said. “My husband is just as excited about it as I am. We want to preserve it and you have to admit this is very unusual to have had it for so long in our family, then it was gone and then found again. It’s truly a miracle the canoe has been restored to our family again.”