Chris Rice’s goal began with a casual remark from his stepmother.Rice, who lives in Keswick, Ont., was talking on the phone with his dad in 2016. Scott was on speaker phone when Rice’s stepmom, chimed in with a strange comment.“Oh, so I hear you’re going to dance at Kate’s wedding,” she said, referring to his best friend from high school, Kate Jollymore, who was planning her wedding for the following year.It’s unclear how the rumour about Rice started, but his stepmother told him it was circulating in Bridgetown, N.S., where Rice grew up and where his dad still lived.“I told her that’s crazy talk,” Rice says. After all, everyone back home knew he was paralyzed from the chest down, a result of a diving accident in 2012.But it got him thinking.The accident that changed his life happened on a warm weekend afternoon at his mom’s backyard pool.Rice had completed his first year of criminology studies at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, with thoughts of becoming a police officer. That summer he was visiting his mother in Keswick while working nearby to earn money for school.His younger brother, Alex, had flown in from Nova Scotia and the two had spent the day at a music festival. They headed to their mom’s place, put on their shorts and jumped in the backyard pool to cool off.He had helped build the pool. He knew it had only four feet of water. Rice doesn’t remember exactly what happened. But he dove in and landed on his head with his feet straight up in the air.Did he slip on something or miscalculate his dive? He’s not sure to this day.Afterwards, as he floated face down, he realized he couldn’t move. Except for his arms — they were flapping wildly but he wasn’t controlling them.“I had no sensation from the bottom of my chest down,” Rice recalls. “It was terrifying.”Plus his head was in the water. He started to panic.His stepbrother, who ...
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