The Crane Operator & the Bulgarian Immigrant
She gave me a hug, she held me so tight.
Ben works in construction in Southwestern Ontario, and owns a flatbed truck equipped with a crane. He had plenty of work during the pandemic and, as 2022 began, wasn’t yet facing a vaccine mandate.
“But I could see that it was coming,” he told Bright Light News in March, “so I just knew I had to go” and support the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa.
After parking about a mile from Parliament Hill the first night, he unfolded the crane and hoisted a Canadian flag into the air. The next day, convoy organizers were advised they couldn’t assemble a stage on the front lawn of Parliament even though they’d secured a permit ahead of time. Ben says he was approached and “asked if I would mind coming up to the main intersection in front of Parliament so that they could use my truck as a stage. And flying the flag for that whole thing was just kind of a bonus for me.”
Around the time he began contemplating his departure, an immigrant who’d escaped Communism altered his trajectory. Two Ottawa residents - a mother and daughter - came by his truck one evening, he says, so he climbed down to talk to them:
You know she gave me a hug, and she held me so tight. This old lady had a good grip on her. And she’s talking in my ear and she’s just begging me not to leave.
…The first night I met her she proceeded to tell me where she was from. And she wore glasses, and they were kind of tight up against her cheeks…And as she’s telling me this story the bottom of her glasses were filling up with tears.
She’s telling me how it breaks her heart to see Canada fighting the same war that she escaped from in Bulgaria.
A connection was established between Ben and these two women:
They ended up taking my laundry, doing my laundry for me. I was just so blessed by them…[it was] just an honour to be there and to meet these fine folks.
It was just beautiful. Definitely somebody I’ll never forget.
