ANTIGONISH – A haircut gone wrong is just one of the memories Shanon Archibald shares of her dear friend, someone who would not only impact her life irrevocably, but also those of countless others not only here, but also across the country and around the world.
“It was awful,” she said, with a hearty laugh, of the shortened style she gave to Nichola Goddard.
The purpose of the impromptu cutting session, which took place shortly after their prom at Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School, was Nichola’s desire to have shortened hair for boot camp later that summer before beginning her university studies at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in Kingston, Ontario.
Shanon remembered how Nichola initially floated the idea of shaving her head, but the pair settled on a pixie or bob cut. It was enough of a challenge in itself, let alone one carried out with kitchen scissors.
“I will never forget it falling on the floor,” she chuckled, noting the thickness of Nichola’s hair made the task increasingly difficult.
Despite the makeshift salon misstep, Nichola headed off to boot camp the day of graduating from the Regional, and then on to RMC, where she spent four years and earned an honours degree in English, became bilingual and a trained artillery officer. That experience served as a springboard to her highly decorated career in the Canadian Armed Forces, where she quickly ascended to the rank of captain.
“We became pretty tight friends,” Shanon said, noting how the pair shared “a lot of laughs,” along with coming from “really tight families.”
She described Nichola as “so completely herself,” someone who didn’t have the insecurities related to most teenagers.
“She was so genuine and she really cared about people,” Shanon offered, calling her a “really sturdy friend,” someone you could always count on.
Although “very focussed,” she noted that Nichola also possessed a “funny and goofy” side. Shortly after she married Jason Bean, who she met and fell in love with at RMC, Shanon remembered the two friends spent New Year’s Eve together. Their plans upended by a snowstorm, they “rented a bunch of movies,” including “Dude, Where’s My Car?”
As for her decision to attend RMC – the seeds were planted when a recruiter visited the Regional in the fall of 1997 – Shanon said she was surprised initially, but she quickly envisioned Nichola embracing the physical challenges, and how it provided a fitting avenue for someone who loved her country and the idea of service.
Calling her a “quiet force,” Shanon explained Nichola’s career success was predictable, considering how she was “very comfortable taking leadership,” which she displayed in the variety of activities she pursued during high school.
“Nichola brought people together,” she added.
Immediate impact
The oldest of three daughters to educators Tim and Sally Goddard always displayed that ability, including in her beloved Papua New Guinea, an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where she was born.
Nichola was four when her family moved to Canada. Over the next 16 years, they would move nine times.
“She was never afraid to go to a new place, or experience new things,” Sally told The Journal.
Not long after their arrival, Sally and Tim accompanied Nichola to the Regional, so she could select her Grade 10 courses.
“She was excited,” Sally remembered, noting how she “got involved in things pretty quickly.”
The Goddard family made Antigonish one of the stops on their journey so Tim could take a position at StFX. After renting a home at Ballantyne’s Cove for six months or so, they purchased a home on Old Maryvale Rd. in Antigonish County.
“What a wonderful way to spend the summer,” Sally said of the memorable days Nichola and her younger sisters – Kate and Victoria – spent at Arisaig beach – not only enjoying the sand and sea, but also lively waterside games of Risk.
Noting how Nichola was “always doing something,” her mother added that she “embraced everything” about life in Antigonish. She welcomed the quality education and teachers she discovered at the Regional, not to mention the variety of available activities. Nichola explored interests from drama and debate to taking a leadership role on environmental issues and with student council.
“It gave her a feeling of belonging,” Sally said of life in Antigonish.
As for her decision to attend RMC, she said Nichola became enamoured with the possibilities, including the opportunity for a “free education and a job for five years after graduation,” as she offered one night after dinner.
“She listened to what they had to say, and liked what she heard,” Sally said, noting that – before then – her family “hadn’t heard a whisper” regarding a potential career in the armed forces.
Nichola eventually abandoned her plan only to fulfill her five-year commitment.
“She grew to love it,” Sally said, noting how she believed Nichola welcomed the structured life – considering her family’s nomadic existence – and the “level playing ground” offered in the military.
Sally added, “She started to call herself a ‘lifer,” when it comes to her career path.
Nichola echoed that sentiment in an interview with journalist Lisa LaFlamme during her tour of Afghanistan, noting how she “fell in love” and is “probably a lifer now.”
‘She was a dynamo’
The leadership she showed in her military career was on full display as a student at the Regional.
“She was an excellent English student,” Miriam Gillis – who taught Nichola in Grade 10 – said.
Noting her extensive involvement in school activities, she described her former student as a “vibrant leader.”
“People looked up to and followed her,” Gillis said.
Before her conversation with The Journal, the retired educator noted she had been leafing through the yearbook from Nichola’s graduating year, which offered a reminder of how much she did at the Regional.
Even though their teacher-student relationship ended with that Grade 10 English class, Gillis said the connection continued over the years as a parent; her son, Raymond, and Nichola were a part of a circle of friends.
“They are a remarkable family,” Gillis said, noting the accomplishments of not only Nichola, but also Kate and Victoria, who have gone on to successful careers.
Although she was “initially surprised” by Nichola’s career decision, Gillis said, “But, when I thought about it, it didn’t surprise me because it would be a challenge for her.”
Regardless of the path she travelled, she added, “I knew that Nichola would have an impact.”
Nicky Callaghan also taught at the Regional when Nichola attended, although she did not have her in a class. Nevertheless, she experienced the effect she had on her classmates and school.
“We were all so proud of her achievements, especially when she was awarded a full scholarship to the Royal Military College,” she said in an email interview.
She fondly remembered how Nichola, who was one grade ahead of her son, John Angus, headed the student council social committee, which would hire then One-Eyed Trouser and later Trouser to play at school dances. John Angus and his brother, Colin, were members of those incarnations that would eventually become the widely popular and award-winning group The Trews.
“To me, she was a dynamo, who was an active participant in school life and a brilliant student. She was excited to start her new life through her studies and through serving her country,” Nicky said.
The ultimate sacrifice
After celebrating Christmas with her family in Calgary, Nichola – on her mother’s birthday – left for her deployment in Afghanistan in early 2006, where she served as a forward observation officer.
During that festive season, Sally remembered Nichola unfolding a map of where she was going on her grandmother’s kitchen table, while stressing to her family that she would be on a “peacemaking not a peacekeeping” mission.
During a firefight in the Panjwaye District – as part of joint two-day operation with Canadian and Afghan troops – Nichola was killed on May 17, 2006.
As described on The Nichola Goddard Foundation website – www.nicholagoddard.com – as “troops were moving into a mosque to capture 15 alleged Taliban members, several dozen hidden militants began firing from neighbouring houses. As a crew commander, Nichola was standing half-exposed in her LAV III, which was hit by two rocket-propelled grenades early in the battle. The battle ended after approximately 45 minutes, shortly after an American B-1 Lancer dropped a 225kg bomb.”
Nichola, an Afghan national army soldier, and 40 Taliban died, while approximately 20 Taliban were captured.
The first female officer to lead Canadian soldiers into battle was posthumously awarded the Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) on October 27, 2006, and her husband Jason became the first widower to receive the Memorial Cross (also known as the Silver Cross).
“We are incredibly proud of her,” Sally said.
Noting that Nichola would likely bristle at being recognized as the first Canadian woman killed in combat in Afghanistan, she added she thought of herself as part of a team and “someone doing her job.” She would want to be remembered as someone who believed in the mission and a “good citizen of Canada.”
Offering that she is “always going to be 26,” Sally described her daughter as the “epitome of what you would want your child to be,” remembering Nichola’s myriad qualities, including being funny and well-spoken.
“What more could you want from your daughter?” she said.
Sally noted the same pride in Nichola’s sisters; Victoria, an author based in the Annapolis Valley who completed her doctorate in medieval studies at the University of Toronto, and Kate, who graduated from McGill law school and serves as legal counsel for a company. Kate lives in North Vancouver, where Sally also resides. Kate is also part of the disbursement committee for the Nichola Goddard Fund, which is administered through the True Patriot Love Foundation.
“We are so proud of them,” she said of her three daughters.
Reflecting on Nichola’s sudden and tragic loss, Sally offered that she, her late husband, Tim, and their family were deeply comforted by and will never forget the outpouring of love they received from “every place that she [Nichola] lived” – from the Dene of northern Saskatchewan to the people of her birthplace in Papua New Guinea. And, of course, the many whose lives were impacted by Nichola in Antigonish.
“I will never forget it,” Shanon said of learning of her friend’s death.
She was on a bus travelling from Ottawa to Toronto when she heard Nichola’s name on a French radio news cast. Although she did not understand what was being said, she knew it must have been something serious. By the time she got home, there were more than 20 messages on her phone from family and friends delivering the tragic news.
“When I heard that Nicola was killed in the line of duty, I was devastated. I called my sons, equally devastated, to lose a good friend,” Nicky remembered.
Her legacy
Not long after John Angus and Colin learned of the loss, Nicky said they penned the song Highway of Heroes in memory of not only Nichola but also all the men and women who serve. She noted that “proceeds from the song go to the families left behind.”
The cherished anthem is just one of the ways in which Nichola has and will continue to be honoured and remembered.
Shanon gave her oldest daughter, Meredith, the middle name Nichola. Each May 2, on Nichola’s birthday, she and her daughters – Meredith and Eleanora – celebrate what they call “Nichola Day.”
“We do a ‘Nichola’ activity,” Shanon explained, such as taking a hike or carrying out an act of charity.
A school in Calgary bears her name, while the Canadian Coast Guard launched the CCGS Captain Goddard M.S.M. in 2014. There is also a bridge along the so-called Highway of Heroes – a 172-kilometre stretch of Ontario’s Highway 401 between CFB Trenton and Toronto – on Ontario St. in Cobourg, Ontario.
There is Trigg Goddard on the base at CFB Shilo in Manitoba – a trigg marker is a survey point that fixes one’s location and orientation and is used for navigation – while the Captain Nichola K.S. Goddard Memorial Sword is presented to the best regular officer training plan artillery senior cadet in their fourth year at RMC.
Canada’s Daughter, which is available on Amazon, is a biography of Nichola penned by her mother, which shares family stories from Papua New Guinea, Canada, and Afghanistan, including Nichola’s letters home from Afghanistan before her death. The title is an homage to the response to the reaction from across the country to her death, and a tribute to the lives she touched in so many places in Canada.
A memorial in the foyer of the Regional in her honour features a photo of Nichola that was displayed during her funeral.
“It felt like the right thing to do,” Sally said of the decision to establish The Nichola Goddard Foundation – nicholagoddard.com – which has left an indelible mark in variety of ways, including the award of scholarships at the University of Calgary and UPEI.
Another foundation initiative brought solar lights to first aid posts and birthing centres in her birthplace of Papua New Guinea. More than one million people have access to light as a result of the effort.
Noting the input from her daughers and son-in-law, Sally said the decision was made to take the foundation in a “new direction,” with the establishment of The Captain Nichola Goddard Fund which “provides national funding to directly benefit community programs that support servicewomen, veteran women, and their families, which help address the unique challenges related to military life.”
In partnership with the Goddard family, the True Patriot Love Foundation – founded in June 2009 by Canadian business and community leaders “to raise funds and awareness for mental health, physical rehabilitation, and transition programs for Canadian Armed Forces members, veterans, and their families” – administers the fund.
Lest we forget
As for Remembrance Day, Sally touched on the importance of “thinking of the fallen and those who have served.”
“We need to be sad,” she said, while noting how Nov. 11 helps remind people and “understand the tremendous sacrifice made by Canadians.”
Sally added, “It’s a day that I dread, but also a day that I cherish.”
And, she said, Nichola is never far from the thoughts of her family.
“We remember her all the time.”
