RICHMOND HILL — Greatness ran through here!
And it never left.
Walking by at night you almost have to do a double take because you think your eyes are deceiving you. Terry Fox stood on this spot along Yonge St. in Richmond Hill in 1980. And he still stands there today.
After leaving Toronto on his way north to eventually head west across Canada, Terry turned heads with the prosthetic leg skipping along with his remaining leg and his blue Adidas running shoes.
Today, there is a statue of that likeness in the heart of Richmond Hill’s downtown that brings it all back for those who saw him in person.
He’s still turning heads and providing goosebumps.
The Marathon of Hope may seem like a long time ago, but not to this group of people who were there to witness the legendary run. In this place, time stands still.
Terry may have died of the cancer that took his leg and later spread to his lungs. But in Richmond Hill, and along many of the other locations along the route from Newfoundland to Thunder Bay, Terry will always be alive.
Just right next to the statue, Glemena Bettencourt remembers the real Terry being right there like it was yesterday. He is not somebody you ever forget.
“He was a striking figure. A very special human being,” said Bettencourt, who has a Terry Fox tattoo on her leg and his memory cherished in her heart.
He was bigger than life but warm, kind and humble.
This description is a common theme from the dozens of people who told their Terry Fox stories in an exciting new book called Hope, edited by journalist Barbara Adhiya. She went coast to coast to chronicle in words and pictures this iconic and magical time in which Canada eventually lost a beloved son but gained so many advances in cancer research thanks to a fundraising effort that in more than four decades has brought in almost $1-billion in donations.
While Bettencourt was there in Richmond Hill the day Terry ran through there, it’s not where she first met him.
Turns out it was legendary Toronto Sun columnist Lorrie Goldstein who introduced them.
She had first saw Terry on Lake Shore Blvd. in Mississauga, ran behind him and volunteered to help out with the run.
Through all of that, she had not been formally introduced.
This is where Canadian News Hall of Famer Goldstein came into the picture.
“He said ‘I have a big surprise for you. I am going to take you to meet Terry.”
Sure enough, at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Toronto, the meeting happened.
Terry had just met Bobby Orr when Lorrie “stopped Terry in the hallway and introduced me.”
That’s where the famous picture of her kissing Terry on the cheek happened.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Bettencourt. “It was the best day of my life.”
They would see each other again in Richmond Hill and weeks later in Parry Sound where another picture of her sitting with Terry on a picnic table giving a birthday gift to him.
She has been in or organizing Terry Fox runs ever since. And, despite some recent injuries from an accidental fall, she plans to be there for this year’s Sept. 15 run like she always has.
Terry kept going and Bettencourt keeps going. And she helps keep his memory alive.
“Things are actually getting even bigger,” she said. “With each year, more and more people join in on the runs and remember him.”
This unique memorial in Richmond Hill is part of that. As Mayor David West and Ward 5 Councillor Karen Cilevitz explain, the statue is only part of the memorial there. There are many messages of hope, a map of the journey and inspirational words to help people with their cancer battles.
“People come from all over the world,” said West.
On this September night, some of those people who gathered here are in this new book that celebrate its launch at this location.
Each of them has their own special story.
Sharon Anderson and Paula Gillam, granddaughters of Gladys Willis, met Terry when he first put his foot in the Atlantic Ocean in Newfoundland. Marlene Lott invited Terry to stay with her family at her house in Newmarket, Jon Hurst from Acton just missed Terry running by his house, so he came back from vacation to meet him along the way. And Mary Hardisty, a retired OPP officer, was one of many who escorted Terry on his famous daily marathons and kept him safe.
The book has all of their stories and many more, including words from Darryl Sittler, “Man in Motion” Rick Hansen, legendary journalists Lloyd Robertson and Leslie Scrivener, former Toronto Raptors coach Jay Triano and Marathon of Hope’s co-ordinator Bill Vigars.
“It’s such an important project because it tells the stories of all of the people who crossed path’s with Terry during the run,” said Vigars, who wrote his own book, Terry and Me, last year chronicling his experiences with the national treasure and all of the Canadian treasures he met along the route. “These are all very nice people and I’m proud to support this book 100%.”
Adhiya said part of the reason she decided to compile all of these tales from that special period was because as time goes on, it’s important that the next generation of Canadians learn just what went on in Canada in 1980.
As the book’s title so aptly captures, what went on was hope for those battling cancer as well as their families. Terry Fox gave his fellow cancer patients that, and thanks to medical advances many years of life that he didn’t get to enjoy. Terry died at just 22 years old on June 28,1981 of the very cancer that forced him to stop the run Sept. 1, 1980 after running 5,373 kilometres in 143 days.
But stand there in Richmond Hill, where he stood and ran, and where his statue is still proudly on display, it’s clear the spirit of Terry Fox is still alive today.