Thia Allison Suzanne Furnémont was born on October 15, 1983, and incredibly fragile (yet already loud 🙂 ) little being I couldn’t quite believe I was holding.
Thia grew up with sports: swimming (she still holds records at the local club), hiking (we climbed so may hills together and discovered so many trails I’ve lost count), highland dancing (her mom used to run her own dance school and teach), softball AND baseball (we couldn’t keep track of which game was where), and badminton (Thia and I used to drive down to Victoria to train with Keith Anton in the freezing Cordova Bay hall, and she would fall asleep on my arm on the way home, giving me “no choice” but to change gears with my left hand lest I wake her up).
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Thia was also a talented musician – she played in the high school band for years, and I also sat outside her teacher’s house while she took piano lessons in Cedar. She enjoyed reading and music (the music part was fun as long as it was the Beach Boys or Beatles, but less fun when her taste turned to country. However, I came to long for the “bad old country days” very quickly when she insisted we listen to “harsher” music in the car …). I am proud she was able to broaden her horizons while retaining her love for “older” music: we went to many classical concerts together (including a few fantastic evenings at the Victoria Symphony Splash), and we also flew down, like jet setters, to Denver Colorado for an evening with Sir Paul McCartney we will never forget.
For years (while Ryan was afraid of river rafting), Thia and I tried all sorts of rivers in BC and Washington, before settling on the Nahatlash and the amazing crew at REO Rafting. These were our little weekend getaways together 🙂
She loved the outdoors, hiking, following me on her bike on trips she was too young for (but where she would stubbornly continue on), and learning to ride and tend for horses up behind Parksville (Thia also got to enjoy a sunny and wind blown ride on an endless beach in Oregon),
She works in Nanaimo as a dispatcher, and rescues (and lives with) as many dogs and cats as she can. Her favourite past time these days is computer gaming and posting pics on Photobucket.
I don’t get to see her very often and I miss her …