ROTHENBURGER – We lost some very good people in 2018

I ONCE ARM-WRESTLED Dr. Cynthia Ross-Friedman.

In March 2014 I was interviewing her for a segment of Coffee With the Armchair Mayor, a feature I used to do for CBC Radio.

I don’t remember why we decided to arm wrestle but it likely had something to do with the subject of the interview, which was International Women’s Day, men vs. women and all that.

Neither do I remember who won, but we likely called it a draw in the spirit of equality.

Cindy died on Christmas eve, capping a sad year in which a lot of good people were lost to us.

Only a couple of weeks before she was killed by an aortic dissection, which is a tear in the wall of the major artery that carries blood from the heart, Radio NL reporter Angelo Iacobucci died.

Earlier in the year, long-time Logan Lake mayor and TNRD chair Al Kemp, political junky and community volunteer Ted Joslin, and Radio NL founder and former City councillor John Skelly were taken.

I had the privilege of knowing all of them. Though their personalities and ages were very different, they all had in common a drive to make their community better.

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Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.