Beryl Iris Stott
June-12-1946 - November-25-2013
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Linda Grenier posted a condolence
I will always remember playing music with Beryl and her warm and lovely smile.
I have just finished reading the book of her Guinness Book of Records recorded marathon across Canada. What a remarkable person!
My condolences to all who have known and loved her.
Peace and Light on your next journey Beryl.
M
Mary Stewart posted a condolence
I met Beryl a couple years ago when I took a few running ladies out to Maberly to hear about her adventurous run across Canada. We were all so impressed and she even had the original outfit she wore while running!! We had other occasions to chat and I soon came to admire her as a unique and wonderful lady.
My sympathies to all who knew and loved her.
K
Kathy Wesley posted a condolence
It is with great sadness and shock that I learned of Beryl's much too early passing. Although we only met a few years ago as I was passing on the duties of the Maberly Agricultural Society to Beryl I quickly grew to love her. She was kind, clever and fun loving. My condolences go out to her family and community. I will truly miss your friendship Beryl, may you
rest in Peace.
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Heather Moodie posted a condolence
I am so shocked to read of Beryl's passing! I was just chatting with her at the District 2 meeting in McDonalds Corners in early November. She was a very lovely lady, always pleasant and interesting to chat with. My condolences to her family.
D
Donald & Dianne Adam posted a condolence
I was surprised when I saw Beryl's obituary. She taught my daughter how to play wind instruments. She was a great music teacher and a lovely lady. I always enjoyed seeing Beryl and talking with her, which continued on well after music lesson days. She has touched many lives. Praise God for her gift of music and hospitality and having shared it with so many. May her soul rest in peace.
m
marilyn snedden posted a condolence
All of us at Archives Lanark are so saddened to hear of Beryl's sudden death. She was such a willing volunteer sharing her talents for writing,organizing our files,etc.We will miss her cheerful contributions as a friend and volunteer.
L
Lanark South District Women's Institiute posted a condolence
The members of Lanark South District Women's Institute would like to express our deepest sympathy to Beryl's family. She will be missed by all who knew her. Women's Institute will miss her energy and zest.
D
Deborah Ireton posted a condolence
As president of Lanark South District Women's Institute, I would like to express my sympathy to Beryl's family. I recently spent a day with her at our Area Convention and got to know this lovely lady much better. She was looking forward to her nomination as Provincial Board Director...a nomination made by me. She will be truly missed. There is another angel in heaven.
J
Jennifer Bernius posted a condolence
I was so shocked and saddened to hear of Beryl’s passing and send my deepest sympathy to her family. I have loved dear Beryl like a sister; our friendship spans over 30 years. We met soon after her run across Canada when she was trying to resume her life in Ottawa. From the first time I saw her, I felt that I’d known her forever. Over the years, we had wonderful deep conversations, supporting and encouraging each other through life’s joys and challenges. For many years, and especially when my son was growing up, she was part of our family. She taught him music. We canoed together; walked through the woods together; shared many a happy meal. One of my fondest memories is of us sitting on a rock in the middle of a tangled forest, a swamp nearby – the land she had just purchased. Beryl was talking about how she would one day live here – in her mind, it looked wonderful! And sure enough, she built a beautiful house there, surrounded by that forest. The rock became her rock garden. How I miss her!
- Jennifer Bernius
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Dorothy and Jack Hobbs posted a condolence
To Beryl's Family
It is with deep sadness that we write this message to you at this time. Beryl was a strong influence in the music world and performed many times with our Tay Valley Choir on special occasions. Deepest sympathy from Jack and Dorothy
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Mary Ferguson posted a condolence
I first met Beryl in 2005 when I moved to North Sherbrooke Township. Beryl asked me to do the photography for a calendar she was planning for the North Sherbrooke Historical Society. Through this I became well acquainted with Beryl and with North Sherbrooke Township. Beryl had an extensive interest and knowledge of the history of North Sherbrooke and its current residents and she passed a lot of this on to me - what a wonderful gift for a newbie to the area. What I will remember most about Beryl was the courage and determination which she brought to everything that she did. She had great appreciation for the little things in life - a cup of tea with a friend, the sounds of nature, especially the American bittern's mating call in the spring, her flower garden that she tended with care and her love of animals, especially her beloved dog Page. She certainly made an impact and she will be sadly missed. I wish to extend my deepest sympathy to Beryl's family.
K
Katrina McDaniel posted a condolence
Beryl was such a wonderful and thoughtful woman. I took flute lessons from Beryl for about 5 years. She was always patient and always had extra time for a chat if something was troubling me. She will always have a special place in my memories. Never forgotten.
S
Sarah Kuhn posted a condolence
I am thinking of Beryl today, the day of the Terry Fox race, as I am reminded of her run across Canada that I never knew about until recently. My condolences to her family and friends. She taught me and my sister recorder and flute and shared her beautiful sheet music with us. She nurtured a love of music so naturally and I only wish I could have spent more time with her as an adult as well. I was so sorry to hear of her passing.
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Friday, January 31, 2020
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Sarah Kuhn posted a condolence
Friday, October 11, 2019
I am thinking of Beryl today, the day of the Terry Fox race, as I am reminded of her run across Canada that I never knew about until recently. My condolences to her family and friends. She taught me and my sister recorder and flute and shared her beautiful sheet music with us. She nurtured a love of music so naturally and I only wish I could have spent more time with her as an adult as well. I was so sorry to hear of her passing.
M
Mary Ferguson posted a condolence
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
I first met Beryl in 2005 when I moved to North Sherbrooke Township. Beryl asked me to do the photography for a calendar she was planning for the North Sherbrooke Historical Society. Through this I became well acquainted with Beryl and with North Sherbrooke Township. Beryl had an extensive interest and knowledge of the history of North Sherbrooke and its current residents and she passed a lot of this on to me - what a wonderful gift for a newbie to the area. What I will remember most about Beryl was the courage and determination which she brought to everything that she did. She had great appreciation for the little things in life - a cup of tea with a friend, the sounds of nature, especially the American bittern's mating call in the spring, her flower garden that she tended with care and her love of animals, especially her beloved dog Page. She certainly made an impact and she will be sadly missed. I wish to extend my deepest sympathy to Beryl's family.
D
Dorothy and Jack Hobbs posted a condolence
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
To Beryl's Family It is with deep sadness that we write this message to you at this time. Beryl was a strong influence in the music world and performed many times with our Tay Valley Choir on special occasions. Deepest sympathy from Jack and Dorothy
M
Mary Stewart posted a condolence
Sunday, December 15, 2013
I met Beryl a couple years ago when I took a few running ladies out to Maberly to hear about her adventurous run across Canada. We were all so impressed and she even had the original outfit she wore while running!! We had other occasions to chat and I soon came to admire her as a unique and wonderful lady. My sympathies to all who knew and loved her.
J
Jennifer Bernius posted a condolence
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
I was so shocked and saddened to hear of Beryl’s passing and send my deepest sympathy to her family. I have loved dear Beryl like a sister; our friendship spans over 30 years. We met soon after her run across Canada when she was trying to resume her life in Ottawa. From the first time I saw her, I felt that I’d known her forever. Over the years, we had wonderful deep conversations, supporting and encouraging each other through life’s joys and challenges. For many years, and especially when my son was growing up, she was part of our family. She taught him music. We canoed together; walked through the woods together; shared many a happy meal. One of my fondest memories is of us sitting on a rock in the middle of a tangled forest, a swamp nearby – the land she had just purchased. Beryl was talking about how she would one day live here – in her mind, it looked wonderful! And sure enough, she built a beautiful house there, surrounded by that forest. The rock became her rock garden. How I miss her! - Jennifer Bernius
D
Deborah Ireton posted a condolence
Monday, December 9, 2013
As president of Lanark South District Women's Institute, I would like to express my sympathy to Beryl's family. I recently spent a day with her at our Area Convention and got to know this lovely lady much better. She was looking forward to her nomination as Provincial Board Director...a nomination made by me. She will be truly missed. There is another angel in heaven.
L
Lanark South District Women's Institiute posted a condolence
Monday, December 9, 2013
The members of Lanark South District Women's Institute would like to express our deepest sympathy to Beryl's family. She will be missed by all who knew her. Women's Institute will miss her energy and zest.
m
marilyn snedden posted a condolence
Monday, December 9, 2013
All of us at Archives Lanark are so saddened to hear of Beryl's sudden death. She was such a willing volunteer sharing her talents for writing,organizing our files,etc.We will miss her cheerful contributions as a friend and volunteer.
D
Donald & Dianne Adam posted a condolence
Monday, December 9, 2013
I was surprised when I saw Beryl's obituary. She taught my daughter how to play wind instruments. She was a great music teacher and a lovely lady. I always enjoyed seeing Beryl and talking with her, which continued on well after music lesson days. She has touched many lives. Praise God for her gift of music and hospitality and having shared it with so many. May her soul rest in peace.
D
David Blaikie lit a candle
Friday, December 6, 2013
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A Continent's Price
A Continent's Price
Footloose
Athletics Magazine
April/May 1986
By David Blaikie
Between May 6, 1983, and November 29, 1983, Beryl (then known as Kanchan) Stott ran across Canada. It was the first documented run across the country by a woman and the longest known "journey run" by any woman, covering 4,168 miles and surpassing the 3,911 miles run by Mavis Hutchison of South Africa when she crossed the United States on foot in 1978.
Stott, then 36, started in Victoria, taking a vial of water from the Pacific, and finished in Halifax, where she poured it into the Atlantic, an act symbolizing the unity she felt toward the vast continent she had just crossed.
The run was a remarkable accomplishment by the Ottawa music teacher, who also holds the Canadian women's twenty-four-hour record of 106 miles, 313 yards. Her journey was one of adventure and adversity, highlighted by disabling bouts of tendonitis, a prairie tornado, oppressive heat and a chilling attack by a Doberman south of Sault Ste. Marie. It was also an inward ordeal that took Stott, a student of meditation and running guru Sri Chinmoy, into the darkest realms of human exhaustion.
Only now, more than' two years later, is she getting over the physical and emotional trauma of the run. So drained was she at the end, Stott recalls, she felt numb, like a spectator to her own achievement. These are some of her reflections on the year that transformed her life.
"The day I arrived in Halifax was strange. The jubilation everyone else felt I wasn't able to feel myself. I didn't feel anything. It was more just for the cameras. I related at that point to politicians, people in the public eye, people used to doing things in public. It wasn't like being a runner.
"After it was over, the biggest hurdles were emotional and psychological at first. I found I was crying a lot for no reason, just crying. All the pomp and circumstance afterward, the celebrations and gifts, it was all too much for me. I wasn't digesting it. The attention was a big problem, during the run and after it was over. I remember in Prince Edward Island there was a lot of interest. People would run out to say hello or stop their cars and cheer. I'm used to having solitude. That's the kind of person I am. I had a little taste of what it is to be famous. It was wonderful but it was also very hard.
"When I came back to Ottawa, the thing I missed most was the help I had, the two women who were with me, Bette McMurchy and Cathy Fleming. They did everything for me. I was still quite weak physically, sore and weak. And suddenly I had to do everything myself again, go to work, housecleaning, groceries, things a healthy person does without thinking. My knees were very painful (from tendonitis) for at least a year afterward. My weight before the run was approximately 129 pounds. When I finished it was down to 99 or 98 pounds. Now its back close to normal again.
"I don't consider myself a runner. My body isn't lean enough. I'm not terribly muscular. I did weights before the run but I wouldn't say I was muscular. What I do have is good bone alignment. A chiropractor told me that. Structurally, he said I had perfect alignment and that's why I could get away with what I was doing.
"There was a lot of depression afterward, and I think the secretion of endorphins had something to do with it. It's like natural morphine. Nobody did an experiment on me but I wish they had. My intuition told me that the numbness was not just stress but definitely something of an endorphin nature. I think my body was kind of addicted to that. I didn't stop running afterward, even with my knees. I still did seven or eight miles a day. I thought it would be too much to stop entirely. Not the natural thing to do.
"Recovering was worse than the run itself. I felt a bit like an astronaut, someone who trains and is very goal oriented, and goes through all kinds of bodily changes and then, when the goal is complete, has to come back and face life again. You're a bit at loose ends.
"I was very empty but fortunately I had my job to go back to. I teach young children, four to eight years old. Children have a lot of life force, the very thing that I did not have after the run. I felt that by a subtle process of osmosis they were giving me the will to carry on again. Children have it in abundance, that life force, especially young children. You can see the wonder of life so much in them. When you grow-older you lose that energy, that spark, that interest and spontaneous joy.
"I felt like a very old person. Outwardly, I looked very young but inwardly I felt eighty. My reservoir was completely used up, the determination, the willpower. You've only got so much of that to draw on, it's exhaustible and needs to be replenished. I couldn't put it back as fast as it was being taken out, even with meditation. It was the summer of 1985 before I began to feel normal again.
"My meditation was heightened by the run. When you meditate you sometimes wonder what the purpose is. You know it has an effect on you but can lose sight of why you're doing it. For a long time in the run it was more a discipline for me to meditate than a source of inspiration.
"But the significance became evident in Northern Ontario. I began to get some kind of sense of universality. It was seeing the world, seeing life, from a very universal point of view. I had the sense that God was definitely real, and there. The very deep sense of that feeling didn't stay with me but I had it very strongly for one day. It was like being out there but not there. My inner being was definitely somewhere else. It was a feeling of oneness with the world, not just the landscape but way beyond that.
"Northern Ontario was like God's country to me. Some people find it desolate but it was the opposite to me. I think it was the ancient rock. They've got that very old rock in Northern Ontario. It's different from the feeling of the Rockies. The Rockies are more brittle. They don't have the same warmth. They have the grandeur and the majesty, certainly, but Northern Ontario rock is warmer. It's not so sharp. To me it was a special place.
"Now I run about 25 miles a week, just for well-being. But I've started doing races again. The first big one was the Sri Chinmoy Five Day Race in New York last fall. It started on November 29, two years to the day after the finish of my cross-Canada run. I ran 257 miles and I went through a lot. But a five-day race is really nothing compared to seven months. You go through your ups and downs and disappointments and all that. But the recovery is a cinch compared to the recovery of a transcontinental run.
"Looking back, the main lesson I learned from running across Canada is that you can never be the same - mentally, physically or spiritually. You have to know and accept that. Physically, definitely, I'm not in anywhere near the shape I was. The 24-hour record, I could never equal that again I don't think, not after running across Canada. I'm going to try again but I suspect it won't be possible.
"Running for me is more a spiritual thing now. When the body fails you have to do a total readjustment. Before I ran across Canada I had a lot of physical strength. I could run, I could move around fast, I could stay up many hours. Now I don't have that. I've had to develop a different relationship with running. And it's definitely a spiritual one. I'm beginning to see that the power within, call it God, call it what you like, can far exceed the power without. The power within is a strong driving force."
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Footnote: Beryl's records have since been surpassed by other Canadian ultramarathon runners but she remains a pioneer in one of the most demanding sports that exist.
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Heather Moodie posted a condolence
Thursday, December 5, 2013
I am so shocked to read of Beryl's passing! I was just chatting with her at the District 2 meeting in McDonalds Corners in early November. She was a very lovely lady, always pleasant and interesting to chat with. My condolences to her family.
