The last time Bruce and Kathy Macmillan were seen, they were sipping tea in the small village of Chyamki in the Nepalese Langtang Valley.
It was cold and rainy and the couple was in no rush to move on with their trek through the national park. They started chatting with a young woman, another traveller.
The woman left ahead of the Macmillans and was on the trail for two hours when the earthquake hit on April 25. At a 7.8 magnitude, it was the biggest in the region in more than 80 years. The Langtang Valley, directly north of the country’s capital, Kathmandu, was among the areas most devastated. Chyamki was buried under a landslide.
Based on their schedule, the Macmillans were still in the village during the earthquake, the woman later told their family. The retired St. Albert couple is now considered dead.
“We had spread a lot of information along that trail and when she got off the trail, she saw that we were looking for them,” says Louise Bentley, Bruce’s sister. “We know from the information she gave us that they would have been in the landslide.”
Bruce, 62, and Kathy Macmillan, 57, were passionate about life.
Born and raised in Edmonton, the couple met and married young. He was a forester. She was a nurse, helping deliver babies at the Sturgeon hospital. They had two sons, Jay and Frazer.
Perhaps the best way to describe them is “chilled,” says Kathy’s brother, Reg Smith. The couple liked community events and during summer festivals, they were always in the audience. When Bruce, a marathon runner, noticed that the sport was taking a toll on his body, he picked up yoga. Both soon became instructors, enthusiastic about the meditation and philosophy behind it.
They also had many friends. A Facebook page, “Find Bruce and Kathy Macmillan,” first dedicated to searching for them, has now turned into one of remembrance. Among hundreds of stories and condolences told, many remember a couple that was loving, caring and inspiring.
Kathy had a way of connecting with people instantaneously, especially young ones, says Bentley. Bruce made everyone laugh. “You cannot believe the laughter that always rang out with this family, especially when Bruce and Kathy were with us,” she says.
But most of all, the Macmillans loved a good adventure. Their first trip, a one-year journey after they had married, also took them to Nepal. Their return to the country this year was a celebration of their 35th anniversary.
They weren’t into luxury travel, says Smith. Instead, they went to Hawaii and camped on the beach. Or they packed the whole family into a canoe and paddled down a river, or along Haida Gwaii in British Columbia. Last fall, they drove their Volkswagen van to the Moab Desert and the Grand Canyon and lived in the car for two months.
“They were not going to live life by default. They were conscious in choosing what they would do and they wanted to make it happen,” says Bentley. “This was not the trip of a lifetime. This was a lifestyle.”
Their sons were often along for the ride. It was not surprising then when they decided to meet their parents in Kathmandu towards the end of their trip.
Before Nepal, the Macmillans had already travelled to Cambodia, India, Thailand and Pakistan, stopping for yoga courses along the way. They planned to go home by the end of April but prolonged their trip last minute, to hike the trail in Langtang National Park.
When the earthquake hit, their son Frazer, 29, was already in Kathmandu. His brother Jay, 27, was on a train to meet them from New Delhi, India. Frazer took the first evacuation flight out of Nepal to meet his brother. When they heard from the trekker, they flew back to Canada. The family wanted them home, says Bentley. They publicly announced their parents’ death on Saturday.
“It could have been worse,” says Smith. “You could have had the entire family there at the time.”
The death toll of the earthquake has now reached more than 7,500. Another 14,000 were injured, and over 70,000 homes were destroyed. About 120 aftershocks followed the initial earthquake.
The Nepalese government has not yet officially confirmed the death of the Macmillans, and the family does not expect this to happen soon. But they have come to terms “with the reality of the situation,” says Bentley.
They also feel that in their search, they were able to help many other families looking for loved ones missing in the area. The family worked closely with the Canadian Medical Assistance Team, a volunteer group of emergency disaster relief respondents. Bruce and Kathy are reportedly the only Canadians that remain unaccounted for.
The family now plans to hold a celebration of life for the couple sometime in the summer. There has also been talk among family members to visit Nepal one day, to pay tribute, says Bentley.
She believes the couple would have no regrets. Bruce was likely always the more adventurous at heart but Kathy loved it just as much, she says. The last time Bentley spoke to her brother on the phone, he had told Kathy that he “was lucky she wanted to do these things with him,” she says.
“And she said, ‘you know, I think I wanted to live this way all my life.’”
