Some young men and women born, raised and educated in Kimberley have left their home town far behind, while pursuing interesting careers.
One example is Theresa Murphy, a Selkirk grad in 1995, who has gone about as far away from home as a person could. Theresa is currently spending 18 months at a research station in Rothera, Antarctica, working as the field diving officer. She is the daughter of John and Dianne Murphy of Kimberley. Her grandparents Alan and Betty Zaleschuk also live in Kimberley.
Theresa began diving right here in the East Kootenays, at Tie Lake and Premier, and her love of diving led to her career.
“She’s been diving all over the world,” said Dianne. “She left Canada after graduating from Dalhousie because she couldn’t get a job. She started travelling. She took more dive courses in Vietnam, went to China, New Zealand, England and Scotland. She’s dived in the Red Sea, Egypt and South America. Then the Orkney Islands. She worked in the North Sea on a ship and then applied for the Antarctic job.”
Theresa left for Rothera in November of 2016 and will remain there until March of 2018.
She is working for the British Antarctic Society out of Cambridge. While at the research station, she will dive 12 months of the year, in charge of making sure the diving is safe for construction workers and researchers.
Thus far, she has run into diving in murky waters, and also had to avoid diving because of the presence of leopard seals.
“These are aggressive apex predators and as a result of a fatal interaction with a snorkeler some years ago, and also general aggressiveness and big teeth...we don’t dive if they are around,” Theresa explained in an email to her parents.
And it is only the odd email that keeps the Murphys up to date on what their daughter is doing.
“They do have radio communication through Cambridge but there is no Skype or video conferencing,” Dianne said.
Her mother is aware that it is a dangerous occupation but tries not to worry because she is confident in her daughter’s training.
“She has been in a dive chamber to decompress, but she is completely trained in the hyperbaric chamber. In Antarctica there isn’t a lot of deep diving. They do have to cut through the ice with a chainsaw to dive in the winter.”
But the odd worry aside, what parent wouldn’t applaud their child achieving their goals.
“Her goal was to dive every continent and now she’s done it,” Dianne said.