An Admirable Asset

It seemed to be all about him. His need and his life fulfilled. It seemed her efforts produced the fulfillment of his life's aspiration. He seemed demanding, in expectation that his will prevail. But it was her indomitable will that prevailed, and ensured that their joint venture was the success it turned out to be. They might have travelled far into dangerous waters, coming ashore in far corners of the world, but who would have known?

It was her invitation to the world to look inside, to vicariously share their adventure that enthused and piqued peoples' interests. Her bold and sometimes wry narrative of the problems they faced, the experiences they shared, the difficulties and the triumphs all, enraptured her reading audience. An audience that grew with each successive dispatch as the months grew into years, and people became familiar with the Steumer family.

Their life aboard Northern Magic, their travails along their journey that seemed impossible, foolhardy and absolutely mad to parents of young children, brought those parents and others along with them, into the inner sanctorums of Diane Steumer's concerns for her three children, and for the safety of the journey they had agreed to undertake with their parents, because their father Herbert aspired to travel the world's oceans.

The parents and their three sons, Michael, Jonathan and Christopher, 5, 7 and 11 years of age when they set out on this unusually arduous and ambitious family adventure, had an addicted audience, anxious to read each week's newspaper-published installment of their progress, the environment they faced, the dangers of storms, the frustrations of mechanical breakdowns aboard their ship, the stresses and strains of dealing with unforeseen events.

And the housekeeping type of details; home-schooling, exposing the children to the way other, obviously-less-fortunate children their age lived in material-and-opportunity-deprived areas of the world, particularly Africa. Where small gestures of encouragement and assistance inspired the adults in their little group to invite their readers to help them fund educational opportunities for indigent youngsters in Kenya.

On their return to Canada, and the city in which they still maintained a home, the boys returned to a normal school life and suffered for their absence by being held apart by their peers, friendless and scorned. Diane Steumer's malignant cancer for which she'd had surgery five years earlier returned to invade her body beyond surgical intervention, leaving her young boys motherless.

Herbert Steumer took up the cause that his wife had initiated, of funding elementary schools and an advanced education for a substantial number of fortunate young Kenyans. His restless spirit robbed his three children of a normal upbringing, and his wife of the comfort of living a stress-free life. Their four year sailing adventure, on the other hand, taught the children a life lesson of independence.

And demonstrated to Diane Steumer that she could prevail to overcome any obstacles, including that of close confinement with a Teutonic taskmaster. Theirs was a tale of plucky children, a gallant mother who proved her mettle, and a father who realized his ambition at some cost to those who loved him.