Tears and Prayers
A river of kindness and cooperation; strangers helping strangers.
Part 1: It Was Horrible
At one point during the Ottawa protest, aircraft mechanic Dan skipped a few nights in the uninsulated van. "I was starting to come down with a little cold and sniffles, and I didn't want to pass it on to Rich, we were in a confined space."
A woman from Montreal, who'd stopped to talk, had rented a two-bedroom Airbnb for four nights, a twenty-minute walk from Parliament Hill. She drove Dan there, showed him where to find the key, and offered him one of the bedrooms.
He laughs, "There's nothing worse than being stuck inside your clothes for days and not having a shower. As guys you can kind of handle that sort of thing, but there's a point." The rental was warm, the shower was hot, and the indoor cooking facilities felt like luxury. Dan didn’t have much of a data plan for his mobile phone, but there the Internet access was unlimited.
The woman and her boyfriend "gave me a little care package, simple things like tuna and beans, lentil soup. I tell you, it was so heart warming that I was crying."
One evening, he and Rich were out for a stroll, stretching their legs, when they encountered a neighbour, a woman who'd looked after Dan's daughters when they were daycare age,
I'm like, 'Sherry?' I couldn't believe it. Big hugs. 'We're here to support you,' she tells me. There were thousands of people on the street, listening to music, listening to speeches. And out of all those people, they just came up behind me and called my name. Their whole family was there.
After that, Sherry's husband was texting me. All the time. 'Is there anything I can get for you? Do you need money?'
Not once did I take it. I was, 'No, you reaching out is all I need.' It was nice, very nice.
Then there was the couple from Manitoba. "A lady and her husband came up to me and said they'd like to say a prayer for me. Oh my goodness, I totally needed that. I didn't know them from a hole in the wall. I don't know if they could see it on me, but I needed those hugs then."
Dan told the couple about losing his job. He told them he was worried about one of his daughters. Teen years can be tricky to navigate without a life-altering pandemic. The woman, he says, wrote a lovely letter, "My wife was crying reading this to my daughter and me. Yeah, it was very touching."
Dan remembers playing hockey in Ottawa. "Seeing the kids smile. Playing road hockey with these kids. I loved that part. Letting them score on you, encouraging them. Good job!"
On another occasion, he carried the young son of a supporter around town for hours,
This lady, she was from Mississauga. She was down the one time and then she brought her son back the second time. He was five or six. He hadn't been out a whole lot because of all the mask mandates and everything. He was a little bit timid, a little shy.
When he came, I welcomed him. I had him over my shoulders, taking him for a big long tour down Wellington Street, with his mother and Rich. We went to the bouncy castle.
I got the lady's number at that point and she says, 'You should ask your wife to come down.' Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
I said, 'Well, the problem is we don’t have a lot of money to drive down and back, and for her to stay the night. But if you’re coming down another time, maybe we can arrange for her to meet you. She could give you a bit of gas money and you'd have somebody to keep you company.'
She loved the idea. So my wife contacted her, and they spoke a bit, and then they came down on a Wednesday, just for a short visit. They turned around and went back home again the same day. I think they left a little after 6:30 am, and got home around midnight.
The first time Dan met the woman, "She was in tears, this mid-twenties single mom. Telling us 'You've gotta stay here and fight for our rights, our freedom. For my kids. Your kids. This world.' She was so stressed."
Dan remembers Peter, the retired trucker parked directly in front of their van, "talking with her and comforting her. He was saying 'We're not going anywhere, we're here for the duration.' He just brought her in, open arms. She was calling him Dad."
final installment: The Best Feeling