‘Always smiling.’ Inspiring story of family’s love for Canadian skier touched many

Editor’s note: In this week’s Proudfoot Corner, where we tell the story behind a Toronto Star story, we share the inspiring tale of a family’s love of a Canadian skier who suffered a devastating brain injury.

Scott Finlay was laid to rest this week. Or, as his parents put it, he’s off skiing in heaven now.

“I know he is,” his mother Rosemary said smiling as she greeted family and friends at a visitation for her son Sunday.

“And I’ll bet he’s skiing pretty fast, too,” his father Hugh added.

Finlay’s joy for life and love of fast skiing was remembered by all who knew him. He was 66 years old when he died Nov. 19 at a hospital in Napanee, Ont., with his family at his side.

In 1978, he was a 21-year-old ski racer looking to make his mark at the Canadian championships in Lake Louise, Alta. But he suffered a devastating brain injury in a ski crash that left him almost completely paralyzed and unable to speak.

The first time I had the pleasure of meeting Finlay was in 2013. He was all smiles and laughter as he was being piloted down a small ski hill on a sit-ski. I was there to follow up on the wonderful work of the lateStar sports reporter Randy Starkman. He wrote a feature headlined “The Skier: When love runs out of time” in 2011, a year before his sudden death from pneumonia.

Finlay’s eldest brother David recalled Starkman’s story and the accompanying video by visual journalist Randy Risling as being particularly special because they told the “real story” of Scott Finlay: “That’s not the story of his skiing injury but the love my parents have for him.”

For nearly four decades, Hugh and Rosemary cared for him around the clock in the living room of their home just outside Napanee, 40 kilometres west of Kingston.

They never complained; they treasured their time with him. But, as with all aging parents of children with special needs, they feared what would happen to him when they were no longer able to care for him. Hugh had been struggling for years to get through government bureaucracy to get his son the home he would need.

That’s the story Starkman and Risling told in 2011. It galvanized community support and helped jump-start government action on building a supportive home for Finlay and 11 other people with acquired brain injuries.

The Napanee Acquired Brain Injury and Rehabilitation Home — a.k.a. the “Finlay House” — finally opened in 2017, thanks to the tireless efforts of the ski friends who cherished him and the unending love of his parents.

His parents were in their mid-80s when he left their living room to move in to his new room full of ski team photos and memories of his life before the accident, including race bibs that were transformed into a spectacular quilt by the local Farmhouse Community Quilters.

That quilt and countless pictures of a smiling Scott Finlay — both in his young ski days and the many decades that came after — were on display at Sunday’s visitation. That Finlay is smiling in every photo is a testament to his incredible spirit, his sister Laurie said. He had a way of making others feel better, no matter what he was going through.

It’s fitting then that his legacy includes the supportive facilities that now allow 12 families to know that their loved one with a brain injury will get the care they need.

When Laurie heard her parents had said her brother was now skiing in heaven, she nodded. “And smiling,” she said. “Always smiling.”

On the Corner:

We kick it off this week with $35 from Doug and Georgie Freeman of Burlington; R. and B. Benker of Newcastle; Maxine and Edward Sumner of Pickering; and Zigmond B. Elles of Orangeville.

Our extended Toronto Star family is always generous and this week they include former staffer Jim Byers with $100, sports columnist Damien Cox with $350 in memory of Mike Lavelle, and ex-staffer Colin Martin, who gives $200 in memory of “my dear wife Lorraine and good friend, ex-staffer Bill Clarke.” Baseball columnist Mike Wilner donates $70 in memory of Oscar Alonso, Vonna Bitove (sister of publisher Jordan Bitove) returns with $500, retired staffer Rick Haliechuk sends $150 and Robyn Matsumoto is back with $500.

Plenty of representation from Newmarket this week with $105 from returning donors Jay and Megan Bentley, in memory of Jim Bentley and Sid Smith; longtime supporter Mike Buchanan with $200 in memory of (Big) Mike Rodwell and Mike Kemp; and Ted Gould with $105 … Mississauga is also showing up strong with $200 from returning donors Al and Edna Tower; $350 from John and Maureen Quinn; $25 from the Cochrane family; and $105 from Janice Robinson in memory of “Mary Hausfeld, my dear aunt who was an avid Argo fan and would have been thrilled with their Grey Cup victory.”

Mark Hughes of Scarborough gives $200; Ted Langdon of Thornhill gives $105; another $105 comes from Walter Okihiro in memory of Hisa Okihiro; the Fortin family of Scarborough donates $175; Brenda Massey-Beauregard of Toronto sends $150 in memory of Stephen Beauregard; Heath Thomlinson gives $105; Ditch Dickinson with $200; V. Burness with $105; Patty Fleming donates $105 in memory of Gordon Fleming; and William Agnew sends $300 in memory of Carl Brewer, Bob Nevin, Bill White and Bob Macalese.

Longtime supporter Lynne Crouter of Aurora gives $200 in memory of CFRB broadcaster Wally Crouter; Ron Grieve of Schomberg returns with $200; Gordon Dowsley of Oshawa gives $105 in honour of EJCBWT; Oshawa’s Irene Howlett donates $75 for Jordan and Kyrell; Paul Hawman from Collingwood sends $105 in memory of Paul Hawman Jr.; Robin Joshua of Ajax gives $500; Peter Weber of Orangeville returns with $150 in memory of Randy Johnson; Lorraine Nishida of Unionville gives $105 in memory of Mickey Matsubayashi; and Whitby’s Robert Faulds sends $500 and is “thinking of John Cerutti and Tom Cheek at this time of year.”

R. Luciw and F. Matsumoto of Uxbridge give $105; Albert Martin, also of Uxbridge, donates $200; $105 comes from Steve Barrett of Stratford, in memory of Len and Marion Barrett; we have $75 from Rod Leonard of Aurora; Brampton’s Randy Ruiters gives $105 in memory of “my father Joe, Börje Salming’s biggest fan”; James Valiquette of Markham also sends $105; David Libman of Vaughan gives $118; Rick and Ruth Houle of Milton donate $105; another $105 comes from Betty Jacobs of North York; Alf Johnston from Cobourg is back with $105 in memory of Alfred Henry Johnston; we also have $105 from Pickering’s Bruce Wilson, who gives in memory of Diane Wilson; John Wilson of Brampton donates $50; Janice Caffery from Stouffville sends $200 in memory of Terry Caffery, who played for the NHL/WHA and later scouted for them; and we have $105 from Frank Martino of Etobicoke in memory of Vincent Martino.