Memorial service scheduled for Fairfield woman

Emily Fournier, 32, of Fairfield drowned Saturday while she and her family were white-water rafting on upper Kennebec River. Contributed photo

Visiting hours have been arranged for Emily Fournier, 32, who died over the weekend in an rafting accident on the Kennebec River.

Her mom, Lyn Rowden, said that visitation hours will be on Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m. at Lawry Brothers Funeral Home at 107 Main St. in Fairfield. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Recycled Shakespeare Company, which Fournier, her older brother, Aaron, and mother co-founded together.

Fournier died Saturday morning after she was ejected from a whitewater raft on the Kennebec River, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife. Department officials said that she was whitewater rafting with the Magic Falls Rafting Co. when she and two others were ejected from the raft as they paddled through one of the larger rapids.

The accident occurred in Indian Stream Township.

Rowden said that her daughter was “one in a billion,” with a deep love for Shakespeare that began when her mother brought her to see “Macbeth” as a little girl.

“She loved it. She read ‘Hamlet’ at 5 years old, and it brought out something in her. She just loved it. That was a constant in her life,” Rowden said.

Fournier graduated from the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in 2006 and received a degree in English from St. Anselm College in 2011. She married her husband, Joshua, in 2011, and they have since resided in Fairfield with their dogs, Sparta and Hastings.

Rowden said that she, her daughter, and her oldest son Aaron came up with the idea to create the Recycled Shakespeare Co. after spending an afternoon together at the beach in 2013.

She said that the group wanted to do a rendition of “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” but didn’t have any money or actors.

“All three of us said at the same moment, ‘reduce, reuse, recite,'” Rowden said. From there, Recycled Shakespeare Co. was born.

In the spring of 2014, the group helped organize a celebration for Shakespeare’s 450th birthday with a march through downtown Waterville, making stops along the way to read sonnets and sing songs.

Rowden describes her daughter as a “very strong woman” who was “very dedicated to the cause.”

“Emily believed if you wanted to do something, you could do it. There are no barriers; all barriers are artificial,” Rowden said. “She was all about love, all about the underdog, and she was always about lifting people up.”

“She was a big advocate for everyone. There was not a single soul she wouldn’t stand up for, right from the time she was a tiny child,” Rowden said. “She was humble and modest, always looked grand and daring and always had a presence when she walked into the room. She was one in a billion. She was the air I breathed.”

Fournier is survived by her husband, Joshua, parents Lyn and Joe Rowden, mother-in-law Joanne Fournier, father-in-law Gerard Fournier, and brothers Aaron and Christian.