A HERO. THIS STORY IS WONDERFUL.

Edward J. Fillingham, 75, stands with the canoe he used to rescue, from left, Amanda L. Roberts, Belleville, Kiefer S. Hockey, Henderson, and Douglass M. Daury, Gloversville, from a capsized paddle boat Friday on Lake Ontario near his home at Windswept Shores, Henderson.

MAN RESCUES THREE BOATERS
'HE'S A HERO': 75-year-old pulls youths to shore with canoe
By KELLY WARTH
TIMES STAFF WRITER
THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2009

HENDERSON — Three people were saved from drowning Friday in Lake Ontario by a 75-year-old man with Parkinson's disease.
When Patricia A. Fillingham looked out the window of her home at Windswept Shores and saw three people in a small boat, she knew trouble was coming. Then they all stood up as their paddle boat began taking on water and fell into the 40-degree lake about 500 yards from shore, she said.
She called 911, but knew rescue crews couldn't arrive in time. Within minutes, her daughter, Beth A. McMahon, Cicero, had pushed the family's canoe over a breakwall and into the water, with the sound of cries for help in the background. Then her husband, Edward J. Fillingham, jumped into the canoe with an oar and some life jackets and paddled out to rescue the stranded boaters.
"On the way out, I asked for a little help and I think I got it," Mr. Fillingham said. "I jumped in and got almost out there and said, 'OK, what are you going to do now?' But with something like that, you don't have time to think. You've either got to act or forget it, they're gone."
He had to use the only watercraft he owned that wasn't wrapped tight and tied up — a secondhand yellow canoe. Mrs. McMahon bought the rarely used boat about 15 years ago at a garage sale, and said she now knows that it was meant to serve one important purpose: saving the young boaters.
When Mr. Fillingham got to the boaters, he pulled one of them, Douglass M. Daury, Gloversville, up after he had sunk underwater and then burst back up to the surface. Mr. Daury had hit his head on the paddle boat and was incoherent, the rescuer said. Then Mr. Fillingham grabbed the hand of Amanda L. Roberts, Henderson, and told her not to let go. The third boater, 17-year-old Kiefer S. Hockey, Henderson, held on to the side of the canoe.
"The young girl looks at me and says, 'I'm sorry, I've got to let go. I can't hang on anymore.' I said, 'You better not let go,' and I grabbed her hand and said, 'Squeeze my hand so I know you're there,'" he recalled. "I knew she was on her way down."
Mrs. McMahon said she thinks the boaters' fate could have been tragic if it had taken even five more minutes to get them out of the water.
"There's no doubt if my father had not done what he had done, they would have brought three dead bodies out of the water," she said.
Four days after the incident, Mr. Fillingham's life was back to normal and he was doing plumbing work in his house. The modest fisherman said he did what anyone else would have done in that situation. But not everyone has a debilitating disease that makes daily tasks like opening jars and tying shoes difficult, and Mrs. McMahon said it's "unbelievable" that her father was able to paddle the canoe and pull three people back to shore.
"I'm not a hero. I'm just glad they're here," Mr. Fillingham said. "You've just gotta do what you gotta do, and don't worry about what's going to happen."
His wife disagreed.
"I'd say he's a hero," she said. "And my daughter is a hero too."
The New York State Police will give a certificate of appreciation to Mr. Fillingham next week.