Chief Stewardess Rachel Fisher and her fellow crew on M/Y The Wellesley certainly know how toexemplify the season of giving. Just in time for the holidays, they pulled in ateam effort to give one guest an extraordinary gift.
As Fisher describes it, it was quite apparent upon coming onboard that said charter guest, Christine, was not well.
“It shocked me more than I thought it would, and I couldn’tseem to get it out of my mind,” she says. “And the hardest part is not beingable to help, so the strong feeling of wanting to fix a problem in which youcan’t kills me. So, I wanted us as a crew to help.”
Fisher, who was in awe of Christine’s achievements and colorfullife, was touched by her kind heart and ability to make Fisher smile all week.“She was one of the most incredible ladies I have had the pleasure to meet, andthe best part is she had no idea how beautiful on the inside and out sheactually is,” she gushes.
Fisher said she couldn’t come to grips that the worldmight lose such an amazing human being and struggled with the unfairness of itall. Determined to do something, she rounded up her fellow crew (Capt. DavidPott, First Officer Daniel King,Chief Engineer Georgi Novakov, Engineer Warren Cook, Relief Bosun Chad Dewet,Relief Deckhand David John Hack, Deckhand Petar Vanev, Chef Bradley Van Rooyen,Second Stewardess Alice Clements, Third Stewardess Danielle Smith, and Fourth StewardessJasmin Ford) to host a charity barbecue on the dock by the boat earlier thisDecember.
And it was anamazing success. “I couldn’t have been a prouder chief stewie of how the wholecrew put so much effort and love into it, and it showed!” says Fisher. Theyraised a total of $1,500. Even better? The owner matched what the crew raised,so a total of $3,000 was donated to the cancer research charity of Christine’schoice.
According toFisher, Christine was overwhelmed, speechless, and entirely grateful uponreceiving Fisher’s email conveying the surprising news. “It really made us crewfeel like we had made a difference,” she says, adding that Christine probablyhas no idea how much influence she had on the M/Y The Wellesley crew.
“The wholesituation made me question myself, giving me a chance to reevaluate what reallyis important in life, made me think about life in general; how it can be soeasily taken away or tainted,” says Fisher. “Reminding myself to be thankful,and I am not taking about being grateful for some good night’s sleep but the factI woke up for another day.”
Now that’s going above and beyond for a guest.