It wasn’t until a health scare that I had first-hand experience of one of our industry’s greatest treasures — its heart and soul.
Two years ago, immediately after the last Posidonia International Shipping Exhibition, my three grown children flew to join me in Greece for their first trip to a country I have visited continually since 1978.
They were excited to see sunset at Sounion, tread the same flagstones at the Acropolis as Socrates, explore the pathways of Delphi, have lunch in the village of Galaxidi (courtesy of former IMO secretary-general Efthimios Mitropoulos), gawk at the Corinth Canal and try to imagine where St Paul addressed the Corinthians.
Eventually we all landed in Spetses, at the urging of Manolis Vordonis (late of Thenamaris) to experience the island and enjoy his glorious hotel, the Poseidonion, right on the seafront. Life was good!
Next morning we rented motor scooters. Being an intrepid soul, I gave mine some gas. Nothing happened, so I gave it some more — and was projected across the road and over the sea wall, landing on the rocks below. For many moments I could not breathe; for many minutes I could not move.
I could hear my son repeating my name as a cacophony of Greek swirled around me. The pain on my right side was intense and it took quite a while until I could sit up, much less stand. Somehow the group got me back me to the hotel, where the wonderful staff called a doctor, who explained that I needed to be airlifted to a hospital in Athens, but he did not think I had injured any vital organs.
Armed with that knowledge, and my reluctance to abandon my children, I decided to tough it out with aspirin and an arm sling. As exemplifies the man, Manouli immediately came to Spetses from Athens to be sure I was being well looked after.
On my return to the US, I had a CT scan. The radiologist informed me that I had three broken ribs (no surprise) and a broken clavicle (a surprise) but she also told me that sometimes they find things they are not looking for — in this case stage-one lung cancer.
This came as a shock, as I had smoked for only two years in college. After weighing the options and balancing my travel schedule to accommodate a six-week no-flying period, I decided on a date for surgery. I had been fairly quiet about my condition until the operation (it was necessary to remove half a lung) but word leaked out and the heart and soul of the industry poured in.
Over the next few days I received more than 50 floral arrangements and gift baskets. I was inundated with emails and cards from well-wishers round the globe expressing their hopes for a speedy recovery and messages of how important they felt I was to them and to the industry. Some of the messages came from people I didn’t even think liked me!
As we prepare for this year’s Posidonia, I’ll never forget the outpouring of care showered on me. I will be forever grateful for it, and for the opportunity to be part of an industry that is so important to global society but still takes the time to nurture its own.
Carleen Lyden-Kluss, founder and president of Morgan Marketing & Communications, is also co-founder and executive director of the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (Namepa) and executive director of New York Maritime
01 Carleen Lyden-Kluss at the TradeWinds Shipowners Forum at Posidonia 2014, before her accident
