New Bedford Mystery Brick Tied to Florida Girl’s Heartfelt Legacy

It’s not daily you step on one thing within the ocean that modifications your life, however that’s precisely what occurred to me.

Whereas coaching for the Buzzards Bay Swim close to Cisco Brewers in New Bedford, I stepped on what felt like a pointy rock. Seems, it wasn’t only a rock… it was a tiny, sq. brick with felt on the underside and a reputation engraved on the highest.

It learn: Emelee “Bean” Arbuckle.

I didn’t know who she was, however the brick caught with me. After just a little digging, I discovered her obituary and discovered she was a younger lady from Florida who had handed away far too quickly. However how her title ended up engraved on a brick in Buzzards Bay? That was a thriller I needed to resolve.

READ MORE: Florida Memorial Brick Possibly Found in New Bedford Waters

Quick ahead a number of days, and due to a sequence of occasions involving a person named Carl Brown, his spouse, and a well-timed article I posted, I received in contact with Emelee’s father, Ken Arbuckle. What adopted was a dialog I’ll always remember.

Ken and his spouse Karen shared the unimaginable story behind the brick. Since Emelee’s passing, her household has been putting engraved bricks at lighthouses all around the nation. They’ve completed over 400 lighthouse visits and counting. They started the journey six months after she handed (Sunday, December twenty ninth, 2013), throughout a therapeutic journey to St. Augustine, Florida. Seeing tribute bricks alongside a lighthouse path, the Arbuckles have been impressed to start out considered one of their very own, and the Emelee “Bean” Arbuckle Basis in affiliation of the Community Foundation For Brevard was born.

The brick I discovered was initially positioned by Ken and Karen in June 2023 on the Butler Flats Lighthouse in New Bedford; the very one my coaching swim passes by. That they had tossed the brick from the rocky jetty and one way or the other, over time, the brick was swept away from its resting spot and returned to shore.

Ken informed me I’m not the primary individual to seek out considered one of Emelee’s bricks. The truth is, I’m the fourth or fifth individual to achieve out after stumbling upon one. They by no means anticipate them to be discovered. Because the Arbuckles put it, “Each every so often, God uncovers one.”

So now, the story comes full circle.

This Saturday, throughout my 1.2-mile swim throughout Buzzards Bay, I’ll carry Emelee’s brick with me in my wetsuit pocket. After I attain the Butler Flats Lighthouse, I’ll cease for a second and place the brick as shut as I can to the place it belongs. Again the place her dad and mom left it, with love.

After I requested the Arbuckles why they go to such lengths to get their daughter’s title out into the world, even when it’s discovered by chance, their reply caught with me:

“So many kids are forgotten after a time frame, and we’ve discovered via compassionate mates, and others who’ve additionally misplaced kids, that it’s actually all about remembrance.”

Then got here the phrases that hit me the toughest:

“Say their title. Say my daughter’s title. Let me know that you simply consider my little one.”

On Saturday, I’ll be swimming not only for clear water, however for Emelee, too.