CALGARY – The definition of bravery, Herald reporter Kelly Cryderman told me recently, is someone who has everything to lose and still risks it for what they believe.
Michelle Lang had everything to lose — a career and a promising future that included plans for a family with her fiance Michael Louie — and still she went to Afghanistan and ventured off the safe confines of Kandahar Airfield to tell the stories she felt were so important.
On Monday, friends, relatives and colleagues grieved for Michelle at a public memorial in Calgary that was attended by hundreds of people, many who never knew her personally but have been touched by her death.
Among those delivering eulogies were Cryderman and Gwendolyn Richards, two of Michelle’s closest friends, who talked warmly about our colleague with the irrepressible grin — a caring, compassionate soul in both her personal and professional lives whose death for many of us is still so difficult to grasp.
"All the pieces fell into place," for Michelle, said Richards. "The life she wanted was becoming a reality."
Indeed, some of the most touching photos that played in a slide show at the service were those of Michelle with children. Her motherly instinct was so evident and so natural, said friend Phoebe Fung. It is one of the many reasons why her random death seems so tragic and unfair.
Lang, 34, was killed by an improvised explosive device along with four Canadian soldiers on the outskirts of Kandahar city on Dec. 30. She was the first Canadian journalist to die in Afghanistan.
Lang was in a convoy on its way to a reconstruction site to write a story about Canadians helping ordinary Afghans rebuild their lives. It was typical of Michelle, who once spent five months chronicling the story of a young woman with severe multiple sclerosis who was housed in a Calgary seniors residence because there was no other place for her in the health care system.
"Telling stories of real people is what she really wanted," said Lorne
Motley, the Herald’s editor-in-chief.
Louie, for the second time in a week, fought back tears in a moving eulogy.
"Whenever I feel darkness, I will remember her light. If she were here now, she would be shy and embarrassed at all the people and the outpouring of love," said Louie.
Michelle’s brother, Cameron Lang, choked back tears as he spoke about his sister. He recalled "a stubborn, adventurous, ambitious reporter. It was precisely the things we loved her for that led her to that conflict outside of Kandahar. She died being who she was, doing what she loved."
Among those attending Monday’s memorial were dozens of politicians and health industry professionals whom Lang dealt with as a beat reporter. She won a National Newspaper Award last year for her coverage of heath care, an award that recognized her as the best beat reporter in Canada.
An RCMP honour guard and uniformed representatives of Calgary’s emergency services, as well as members of the military, were also on hand.
It was the fourth and final service for Michelle, including a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield, a repatriation ceremony in Trenton, Ont., and the funeral last week in Vancouver.
For many of us, and especially for the Lang and Louie families, the reality of what has happened will only start to hit us in the coming weeks.
"Twenty days have passed since we all learned of Michelle’s shocking and tragic death. It seems like yesterday," said Motley. "Some of us are starting to talk of turning the page, of putting the grief behind us. But it is hard."
Among the lasting tributes to her is the Michelle Lang Fellowship in Journalism, announced by Canwest Publishing on Friday. Kick-started with $100,000 from the company and the Asper family, it will fund a national program for recent Canadian university graduates and award up to $10,000 annually to fund a major news project that holds special significance for a Canadian audience. Contributions to it can be made in Lang’s memory at any Scotiabank branch across Canada.
The company will also fund the salary of a full-year internship for the fellow that includes six months at the Calgary Herald and six months at Canwest News Service in Ottawa.
The pressure on the first winner will probably be immense, but those of us in the Herald newsroom know that we owe it to Michelle to cut the poor soul some slack. It is what she would have done. Gracious, poised, never impressed with herself despite her accolades, Michelle Lang truly did represent the best in all of us both professionally and personally, as Motley has said on several occasions.
Today, nearly three weeks after her death, the flowers that have become a shrine on her desk are beginning to wilt, the petals beginning to drop and fade.
Not so our memories of Michelle Lang, who touched many lives in her 34 short years. She taught us to live large and enjoy life, pull a good prank and, above all, care for each other.
"She may have seemed tough as nails on the outside," Motley said. "But inside was a caring heart."
rremington@theherald.canwest.com
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