Godspeed, Sir Edmund

Seventeen years after Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Mt. Everest, my cousin Marcy and I were planning--no, plotting--to be the first women to summit the world’s tallest mountain. Sir Edmund was our hero and we were bound to follow in his footsteps. She was 8 and I was 10.

We had grand plans in life with the ascent being the main one at the time. We poured over National Geographic magazines, any newspaper clippings we could find and my old stand-by, the World Book Encyclopedia. Paper and pencils in hand, we wrote down everything we would need, even calculating the costs of our Sherpa guides. We were going to combine our ascent with the quest for the elusive Yeti and solve the mystery once and for all. For several years of our childhood we kept our dream alive by making lists, designing equipment and drafting a letter to National Geographic requesting sponsorship for our trek. By this time we envisioned ourselves on the mountain and imagined the accolades we would earn upon our successful return.

But life has a way of intervening. School turned our attentions away from dreams of mountains to dreams a little closer to home. At some point our interests broadened to include the Enemy, boys, and life for us began to change forever. My studies took me in one direction and Marcy’s took her in another. I traveled to Switzerland and she traveled to Russia, each of us marching to our own drummer. I went to college, then to work, married and started a family. Once in awhile the old dream would come back to visit. On quiet evenings after the children were in bed, I would allow the dream to drift back through my mind, dusting it off and enjoying the memory of two young girls with big ideas. Wistful, I knew I could not follow in Sir Edmund’s footsteps of climbing Mt. Everest.

Sir Edmund Hillary was a quiet, humble man who lived his life giving back to the people he had come to love. During his visits to Nepal he saw the needs of the Nepalese people who had been so kind and supportive of him. Out of fondness and respect, he founded the Himalayan Trust in 1962 to promote healthy development at the base of Everest. He spent many years generously giving his time and money, providing schools, hospitals and clinics to the people who lived in the shadow of the great mountain that brought him his first fame. He changed thousands of lives in the remote region and provided opportunity for a community to learn and care for itself. He affected their survival through his tenacious generosity of good will. He was a staunch conservationist, working tirelessly to protect nature through clean-up projects and reforestation, teaching responsibility and leading by example.

In his passing, I have come to know Sir Edmund Hillary once more. The years proved he walked the walk, even in the face of much sadness through the losses of his wife, Louise, daughter, Belinda, and close friend, Peter Mulgrew. He was an elegant man of great humility, integrity and character, the genuine article of a role model which this day and age so desperately need. In reviewing his storied life I remembered my dream from long ago. Yes, it is true I shall probably never follow in the footsteps of Sir Edmund Hillary, mountaineer. However, I learned that I can unquestionably follow in the footsteps of Sir Edmund Hillary, humanitarian. Godspeed, Sir Edmund.