I received some help this week in my quest to find the lady who saved my daughter from being swept down river 30 years ago.

The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News – the local newspaper of the community where we lived when my kids were little – printed my blog missive thanking the lady who strode through river rapids to rescue my little girl who had capsized in a run-away rubber raft. In the panic and the trauma, I realized after the fact, I didn’t know her name.

I didn’t have a quest in mind when the memory rose during a Canadian Thanksgiving church service. Write a thank you to someone who made a difference in your life, said the minister and with the crayon issued on entering the church, I wrote Dear lady who saved my little girl, thank you.

Last week, I wrote a letter on this blog – perhaps into the ether but, who knows, perhaps it will find her – about that day and her actions, which likely saved my daughter’s life.

The News picked up on my post and ran it prominently today and now I’m thinking, what if? What if I learn her identity and can properly offer some of the thanks due?

I should address what The News so rightly points out: I was editor of a newspaper in that community at the time. Did I use the medium available to me to write about the incident or search for the lady then? I don’t think I did. So this may all be much too little, much too late.

But, still, what if ….