Aye Aye: Dibrell readies the ship

For Ms. Elizabeth Dibrell, it was a lifelong dream to sail the seven seas.

Or, rather, sailing on a sailboat on Canyon Lake.

In fact, one of Dibrell’s favorite books “Swallows and Amazons” by English author Arthur Ransome, is about one of her lifelong dreams, involving a story about sailing.

“Swallows and Amazons is about sailing English Lakes,” Dibrell said. “Now that I’ve done that, when I read the books I know how it feels.”

Another favorite book of Dibrell’s is Coot Club, another book authored by Ransome.

“Coots nest by the water and rivers,” Dibrell said. “This Coot had a special white feather, and Margalotte had moved in front of her nest where she couldn’t get to her chicks that were about to hatch, and so Tom had to go and let the boat loose to float down the river.”

But sailing is not the only passion Dibrell had.

At the Alexis Pointe senior living center, Dibrell is famous for her love of Pirates, including the infamous Long John Silver.

“He was the epitome of pirates,” Dibrell said. “Much more than Blackbeard since I’m more familiar with him (Silver). I enjoy Pirates because they are adventurous, awesome, antagonistic and rebels.”

So how does one go from Alexis Pointe to a live-lifelong dream of sailing on the waters?

Fortunately for Dibrill, she had help from Katy Starr, the Community Relations Director for Alexis Pointe.

“Last year during the more rigid lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Starr said. “I was helping out serving lunch when Mrs. Dibrell was wearing one of her shirts that her daughter made that had sailboats on it with a matching visor. In trying to keep her spirits up, with the lockdown where we couldn’t have any visitors, we were trying to dream up some things. I was like ‘Man Ms. Dibrell, it would be so great to go sailing. Have you ever been sailing?’ She said ‘No, it would be my dream,’ and she said it with such conviction that it just struck me.”

Luckily for Starr and Dibrell, the nearest lake was just 39 miles away in Canyon Lake.

Now the challenge was to find a sailboat.

“When things started to open up, I did some research on Canyon Lake,” Starr said. “I found on their calendar they had adaptive sailing, where they take wounded soldiers, people with mobility issues out on sailing trips. I got in touch with those guys who got me connected with some other guys. We’ve been trying to do this for the last few months.”

Despite having their date being pushed back due to a surge of COVID-19 cases, there was finally an opening.

“It couldn’t have been a more perfect day,” Starr said. “When I told the two sailors about Ms. Dibrell’s story, and how she always wanted to go sailing, loved Pirates, and reading pirate books, they loved her story… It was really magical.”

The sail team were also able to hang up a couple of pirate flags on the mast though the crew fortunately did not participate in piracy.

“Before we went out there, we ate at Cafe Guadalajara because she likes Mexican food,” Starr said. “We wanted to make this a special moment. Alexis Pointe is owned by Civitas Senior Living and something they push is to create miracle moments. So this one just magically came up. Technically it was a special moment, but it was inspired by her dream.”

For Dibrell, just seeing the pirate flags on the boat was special.

“It was just wonderful,” Dibrell said. “Now whenever I read my books, I know what it feels like. It was the first time I’ve been sailing, so being on the water and rocking with the waves, now I know how it feels when I read the books. There were so many moments that I’d like to go again.”

Dibrell waited so long for her first sailing trip, now she can’t wait to go on a second.