Rachel Suzanne Bowen

For a woman growing up on the Californian coastline, Rachel Bowen loved the sea. Not in just marvelling at the beauty of the ocean, or the fascination with its changing colour and shape. Not merely an entrancement at the sight of a Californian sunset stretching over the Santa Barbara beachline as time ebbed to the darkness of evening It was these things, but also much more.

For Rachel, the sea was inextricably linked to her emotions. The pounding of the waves and the deep sonorous boom of their crashing made her heart pound harder and lungs breathe deeper, cleansing her mind. The tang of sea salt borne on the wind, and tasted on her lips, brought an emotional release as if she was drinking air borne straight from Japan, Borneo or the Aleutian Isles. She sang on the beach, her voice drowned by the sea’s orchestra surrounding her, enclosing her in waves of sound. It was in these depths of mental oneness with the ocean that she was truly happy.

She would visit the beach alone as a child. Rachel visited by day, by night, in freezing rain, or in blistering sun, her parents owning a small beachside cafe close to Gaviota  She was only 14 when, half immersed in the waves one quiet Sunday morning, singing, eyes closed and the wind streaming her hair behind her, she heard the cry. Another wail came after, and she saw a female surfer, in distress, almost crumpled by an enormous tube wave, obliterating her shaky pan-handle move.

By the time the surfer’s body reached her, the woman resembled a ruined puppet, both legs folded out at an alarming angle. Without thinking - and to the great credit of the American Red Cross representative who had taught Rachel CPR at her local High School - Rachel administered a life saving resuscitation. As the woman recovered, her life saved, briny sea water spluttering from her lungs, Rachel felt an electrifying joy dwarfing even her emotional resonance with the Pacific Ocean. In the place on earth she felt happiest, she had found her vocation and her career.

She qualified as a Registered Nurse after college, taking a BSN shortly afterwards. Encouraged by her father, an ex serviceman from the US Marines, she applied to a number of public organisations. One was the Californian Department of Corrections. An unusual choice, but like so many things in her life, a decision imbued with a deep connection with a sense of doing something worthwhile and right. She has worked since 2014 in her first job, at Liddel Women’s Correctional Facility, a large Californian correctional facility located 17 miles from the Pacific Ocean which she adores. She remains very close to her family - they still own the small beach side cafe - and met her life partner, Erik Lehman - a paramedic at a local Hospital, shortly after commencing work at LCF. She is expecting her first child in July 2019.

She still sings every day. When the wind blows from the West, she can still sometimes smell the salt in the air from the sea as Liddel. When she closes her eyes, she can imagine the crash of the waves and the thunder of the sea’s great depths, especially if she sings.

Star Sign: Aquarius