Sandcastles

A tribute to Adam as given at his Memorial Service 2/6/16

By Chris Vick

If anything, my nephew Adam was tenacious. He believed given enough hard work, effort and
determination he could achieve the impossible. Case in point: The Sandcastles.
Pretty much every summer when Adam was a boy my parents would come to visit me in
Portsmouth, NH. And pretty much every summer Adam would hitch a ride with them.
Sometimes we would go to Boston or the Berkshires or the White Mountains but our favorite
excursions were to the ocean which was only about 15 minutes from my place.
Our favorite beach was not one of the big crowded resorts like Hampton Beach but an off the
beaten path stretch of sand called Foss Beach. The downside of Foss Beach, although it was big
and spacious at low tide, it practically disappeared at high tide. So we would check the paper in
the morning in order to arrive at the beach as close to low tide as possible, whereupon Adam
would begin building a sandcastle. And later as the tide eventually reached his structure, it would
of course, be destroyed by the waves.
But every day we went back Adam would declare “Today I am going to build the biggest,
strongest sandcastle ever and it WILL survive!”
He would work all afternoon on his project (with occasional breaks for swimming and boogie
boarding) until finally the tidal creep would reach his castle of sand and begin to undermine the
front wall, the first line of defense. Whereupon Adam would run in front of his structure as the
waves receded, gathering strength in anticipation of the next heavier and more destructive
assault. Adam would shout at the ocean, wave his fist, even pick up handfuls of sand and hurl
them furiously at the waves. Eventually, when none of these tactics worked, he would lie down
in front of what was left, sacrificing his own body for his beloved creation.
Finally, as usual, the tide would win the battle and leave the beach as smooth and flat as when
we arrived. Adam would shrug and go for one last swim as we packed up the beach accessories.
And, as we said goodbye to mother ocean, Adam would take a final look around and say
“Tomorrow…I will build a sandcastle that will last forever.”
Adam, I’ll keep building your sandcastles every summer and maybe, just maybe, someday…..