Published in The Post-Star (A1) and on poststar.com
10/3/6
It's been a year since 47 Midwestern tourists, full of lunch and ready to relax in the sunshine, boarded the Ethan Allen tour boat to enjoy a scenic cruise around Lake George.
Ann Beamish, a 79-year-old woman from Sterling Heights, Mich., leaned on a cane and on her daughter, Carol Ann Marsh, as the pair climbed aboard and chose a seat in the back of the boat.
Fred and Mary Helen Metz, an elderly couple from Warren, Mich., held hands as they cruised across the calm waters and admired the handsome homes tucked into the shoreline.
In a nearby motorboat, Mounir and Joanne Rahal and their five children were enjoying the gorgeous day so much that they hadn't even bothered stopping for lunch.
"It was meant to be, for us to be where we were," Mounir reflected later. "If we had stopped somewhere, we could have missed the whole thing."
The Rahals weren't far from the Ethan Allen when it suddenly flipped over and began to sink, making them some of the first civilian rescuers on the scene. They threw lifejackets into the water and pulled people into their own boat.
As Marsh told investigators the next day, she survived by swimming "toward the light" to reach the surface of the lake. Twice, she was pulled back down by the desperate hands of other passengers before reaching the Rahals' boat, where Fred Metz and several others had also made it to safety.
Marsh looked back and saw her mother's body being pulled out the water by another rescuer.
"They were hitting her chest and trying to give her mouth-to-mouth, and I said, 'she's dead,' " Marsh remembered.
Next to her, Fred Metz was also staring at the lake.
"My wife's dead," he said. "I can see her floating."
The Rahals wrapped the survivors in towels, and hugs.
Facing the lake
For most of the past year, Marsh has been sure that she wanted to return to Lake George for the anniversary of the tragedy.
"I really don't know why I have to go back; all I know is, I have to," she said. "I know I've got to face that water."
Marsh has battled a fear of water ever since the accident, but has achieved small victories, like going on a paddleboat at a recent family reunion.
A few days before she and her husband planned to start the drive east from their home in Sterling Heights, Mich., she said she was having second thoughts.
"All of a sudden, I've been up nights, thinking, 'Oh my God, can I really face this lake again?' " she said last Wednesday. "But I'm not going to let it beat me."
She stood beside Lake George yesterday, clutching a picture of her mother in a heart-shaped frame as she hugged Joanne Rahal.
"I knew you would be here," she said.
The Rahals still enjoy boating on the lake, but things will never be quite as carefree, Mounir said.
"It took me a while to get the kids back on the boat, and you can still sense a little fear in them whenever it rocks," he said. "They respect the boat, and the water, a lot more now."
His family has kept in touch with several survivors of the Ethan Allen accident, and they have a stack of thank-you notes, some from complete strangers.
In one of his first letters, Metz addressed them as "my son, daughter and grandchildren." Marsh called them "angels on earth."
Mounir said he doesn't think he's a hero, just a God-fearing man who lives by a simple rule.
"I believe in treating people the way you would like to be treated," he said.
At yesterday's memorial service in Lake George, a year after the accident that brought them together the first time, the Rahals got a chance to reconnect with some survivors and family members of the deceased.
Mounir said he was disappointed that Metz didn't attend, but was glad to see Marsh and other familiar faces.
"I'm glad this event is taking place, because it puts the people back together with a little more happiness," he reflected. "Now they can see that this area means more than tragedy. Hopefully, it gives them some closure, and us too."
After the ceremony, Joanne gazed thoughtfully at the granite monument to the 20 people who died in the accident, and shook her head.
"Life is way too short," she said.
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