It was a very good summer for Mart. He was 14 years old and I would not meet him for another three years. Mart spent most of his leisure time in and on the water then. This was the year that he took up competitive swimming and paddling. He always looked so smooth and beautiful doing the American Crawl.
His name made the headlines several times over the summer because of his outstanding results in freestyle racing.
Gill swims regularly to this day.
He also paddled competitively in 1957. I think this was the first year he went to Ottawa for the Nationals.
Martin was quite a star from the beginning. Not only was he good at water sports, he was very popular for other reasons. He was such a good guy.
I see a few names of some swimmers who came to his funeral with me, some 67 years later.
Isobelisnecessary 