We pull (and push) together every winter

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/02/2023 (1130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After two years of compiling this column, I can say that I am always struck by how quickly and selflessly Winnipeggers and Manitobans act when they see others in distress during the winter months.

This year is no exception, as my inbox has been deluged with stories of cold-weather kindness. Here are some more of your tales.

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Charleswood resident Sylvia Haig was so moved by the kindness of the strangers who rushed to help after she fell while crossing Roblin Boulevard that she purchased a classified ad in the Jan. 18 issue of the West edition of the Free Press Community Review.

It read as follows:

“I would like to thank all the helpful people who assisted when I fell crossing Roblin Blvd. while going to my cardio clinic appointment on Jan. 5.”

Curious, I called Sylvia, an 86-year-old resident of Charleswood, for more details.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t get one person’s name,” was the first thing she said. “But there were about eight people there who helped me.”

Sylvia explained that she had to park across the street from MyCardia Clinic, located 300-3360 Roblin Blvd., and then decided to cross the street at Hendon Avenue.

“I should have walked down to the corner, but I was crossing where everybody else was. I got to the middle and there was a car waiting to turn left (onto Hendon). They signalled for me to go, and I signalled for them to go and then finally I decided to go. But when I put my cane down, it was right on some ice, and I felt it slip.

“Luckily, I remembered to throw myself backwards as I was falling, but everything went flying — my purse, my cane, my coat, everything,” Sylvia said.

“Then it seemed like all kinds of people came running to help. One guy got there first and put his hand out to help me up, and then another guy came in and they lifted me up underneath my arms and walked me right into the building and into the elevator to go up to the third floor.”

The clinic was very busy, and Sylvia soon realized that many people had seen her fall.

“After my appointment, I was in the elevator with an elderly man using a walker who said he had seen me take quite a fall,” she said. “When we got out of the elevator, his son said, ‘Wait here, Dad, I’m going to help this lady to her car.’ When we got outside, he said, ‘Give me the keys and I’ll bring it right out front,’ and that’s what he did.”

Well done, people. Well done.

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Denah Weinfeld called just before Christmas to tell me how several strangers had helped her and her husband, Frank, when they got their car stuck on Cuthbertson Avenue, near Park Boulevard North in Tuxedo.

“It was on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 17th, between 3:30 and 4 o’clock,” Denah said. “First a young woman with children stopped and asked us if she should call CAA and we said ‘Yes, please.’

“Then another young woman came by, along with three young men, and they pushed and pulled but they couldn’t move the car.”

Frank and Denah, who are 92 and 90, respectively, had really hung up their grey Kia Fiesta.

“Then Jenna and her three gentlemen friends call a fourth man with a truck, and when he came, they hooked up his truck to the rear of our car and pushed and pulled and we finally got free,” Denah said.

“I didn’t get all their names, but I’d like to acknowledge them. Any complimentary word I can think of, I would use for them. We were very, very grateful.”

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Also in December, a woman named Elizabeth Martin, who lives on College Avenue in the North End called to say that she experienced the kindness of a young man named Sebastian who pointed out that one of her tires was low when she was out running errands.

“I had taken my dog to the vet in St. Vital and then stopped at the Pet Valu in Rivergrove on my home, and Sebastian told me that my driver’s side front tire was low. He had one of those air compressors, so he hooked it up and told me it was down to 25 and then he pumped it up to 35 for me.

“When I got home I called CAA and they came and put the spare on and then I took the tire to be fixed at KAL Tire,” Elizabeth continued.

“He was a nice young man. He told me that he and his wife, Victoria, had started their own business, S & V Restorations, and I told him that his wife was lucky to have him.”