BOESMANSGAT, South Africa (24 Jan 2005) -- The ashes of Deon Dreyer, the diver whose remains Dave Shaw went to fetch in a doomed mission, will be scattered in Boesmansgat. "There's only one place for my son's ashes," Theo Dreyer said yesterday. "I know people will think it's ironic but we know that this should be the final resting place for our son." Theo said he would fetch his son's ashes today after attending a memorial service for Shaw - the 51-year-old Australian pilot and deep-cave diver who died earlier this month when he plunged 271m to the bottom of Boesmansgat on a mercy mission to retrieve the Dreyer's remains. Dreyer was 20 years old when he lost his life at the Northern Cape cave a decade earlier. "I will attend the service to pay my final respects to Dave. Dave came out to do me a favour and I want to give him a hero's send-off," Theo said. Shaw discovered Dreyer's remains on October 28 and told the Dreyers that he would return to Boesmansgat and fetch their son's remains. But on January 8, about 22 minutes into a dive that was scheduled to last 12 hours, Shaw lost consciousness. | | Dave Shaw For four days, his body lay next to Dreyer's. But on January 12, when the support divers were retrieving the cylinders of the doomed dive, Shaw's body floated up to the roof of the cave - and dangling from his body was Dreyer's remains. It wasn't the way he had intended, but Shaw had kept his promise and completed his mission. "I want to meet Steven (Shaw's 23-year-old son) and tell him what a great man his father was," Dreyer said. Yesterday Steven Shaw arrived in Johannesburg to attend the memorial service. SOURCE - IOL |
