STONINGTON, Maine โ February 24, 2013 โ As snow fell outside, tears were falling inside the Island Community Center on Sunday as the tight-knit fishing community of Stonington-Deer Isle gathered to remember two local fishermen lost at sea in December.
Arriving in the snow long before the 2 p.m. memorial service began, Joyce Gray, a grandmother of Wallace โChubbyโ Gray II, the young captain of The Foxy Lady II, chose her steps carefully as she made her way down a slippery hill to the community centerโs front door. She clutched husband Maynardโs arm with one hand to keep both from falling. In her other hand she clutched a pink box of tissues.
Once inside, Joyce Gray spent a few quiet moments alone, before the prayers and eulogies began, soaking in the memories sparked by a collage of family photos. Losing a grandson at sea, with no mortal remains over which to mourn or bury, has been โawful and unreal,โ she said Sunday.
Chubby was 26 and his crewman, Wayne Kennedy Young, was 50 when Grayโs Gloucester-based scalloping boat went down on the night of Dec. 15 for reasons unknown, apparently about 15 miles north of Provincetown, Mass. After a two-day search by air and sea, the U.S. Coast Guard found pieces of wreckage from the 45-foot boat, but not the fishermen or their bodies. The search was called off.
Read the full story from the Bangor Daily News at the Maine Sun Journal