Daughter’s bike returned to grieving parents

Family overjoyed after late daughter’s stolen special bike reunited with parents

Architect Allan Partridge and his wife Barbara Partridge were “devastated beyond words” when their late-daughter Martine Partridge’s bike was stolen from their garage in late-January.

“Her bike was priceless to us and was one of the few remaining things that connected us with her,” Allan Partridge said Saturday.

Their daughter had a mountain bike but she didn’t like it and rode it only twice. She and her husband Paul Lumsden went shopping and when she saw the pale-green Linus bike, that was the one she wanted.

“She loved it, named it Charlotte and it became like a piece of art in our home,” said Lumsden.

My Journal colleague Keith Gerein reported last year Martine Partridge was the youngest at the time to access Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) after the Canadian government passed Bill C-14 allowing people to seek such assistance to end their life.

After all efforts to battle her cancer had failed, Partridge made her decision.

Before dying peacefully at home surrounded by family on May 21, 2017 at the age of age of 39, the former NAIT and MacEwan University instructor wrote a letter saying she chose medical assistance in death because she loved and cherished life.

She wrote, “For me life is to be lived as Thoreau described: ‘Deliberately: I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.’”

Disease had started to chip away at all that was dear to her and Partridge said, “The gentle movement of my favourite yoga poses, hugging my dear ones without the awkward discomfort of ports and other medical devices impeding our embrace, culminating in zapping the pleasure of a simple sip of clean, refreshing lemon water.”

Barbara Partridge said the bike was a representation of the freedom her daughter felt at being able to enjoy life’s simple pleasures without sickness getting in the way.

“She enjoyed leisurely rides with her husband Paul and taking Charlotte to the downtown farmers market and filling her basket with fresh produce,” she said.

When the bike was stolen during the 30 minutes the garage door was open, the neighbourhood was immediately searched, but without success.

A police report was filed. Barbara Partridge printed posters to distribute and visited local businesses seeking to place a poster advertising a $500 reward for the bike’s return.

“Friends and family also helped through social media, posting information about the theft and the reward,” she said.

But it was 30 days later that hawk-eyed Jim Harvey, general manager at Sports Central, spotted a three-speed, sage-green Linus Dutchi among about 20 bikes the Edmonton Transit Service had dropped off after they had been found abandoned at stations.

“The bike was in mint condition and stood out a mile,” said Harvey. “I was sure the owner would like it back. And then I noticed a Redbike store sticker on it.”

He called the store asking if they could link the serial number to an owner.

“We did,” said Redbike’s Jay Smith. “

I had also heard through social media such a bike had been stolen and we linked the number to Paul Lumsden.”

Partridge says he and his wife were “overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness” when they heard the bike had been located. He split the $500 reward between Sports Central and Redbike and went home with a charity receipt from Sports Central.

“We’d like to thank all involved in the bike’s return,” said Allan Partridge, perhaps best known for the $7.5-million renovation of the Varscona Theatre, Martine Partridge’s favourite project.

“Charlotte brings a smile to our faces every day. The bike will stay here until the summer and then Barbara will fulfil Martine’s wish and take it to Canmore. There she will take a spin every day and remember the feeling of freedom Martine once felt.”

FAME AT LAST

Downtown Rotary Club member Rod Karius messaged me on the weekend to say a story I wrote 50 years ago was now part of the British band The Who’s 50 Years of the Who series on Facebook.

Fresh off the boat from the U.K., I had joined the Journal in 1968 and city editor Eddie Keen, probably fed up with my boasts of having interviewed The Beatles, sent me to The Who concert at the “new” Edmonton Gardens.

Many of the 6,000 screaming fans that night sought to climb over steel barriers in front of the stage and were stymied by police and security guards.

Girls fainted in the heat and hysteria and it was announced the concert would not go on until everyone sat down.

Then band members didn’t disappoint. Roger Daltrey 23, Pete Townshend, 22, Keith Moon, 21, and John Entwistle, 23, went through their infamous instrument-smashing routine at the show’s end.

Later, The Who retired to an English pub in the hotel they were staying at but got thrown out of the bar because of their long hair.

“We had pretty short hair,” Entwistle told me, “and I was wearing a (psychedelic) suit and a white shirt but I still got thrown out for being a stinking hippie.”

The incident prompted Entwistle to write the song What Are We Doing Here, which appeared on his first solo album, 1971’s Smash Your Head Against The Wall.