The Woman

I'd have to say my dad was my first hero and even though he died when I was 14, I still think about him when I have decisions to make. My dad was a good man in many ways, but one of the occasions I remembered really made an impact on how I wanted to be like him.

We lived in a big two storey house in what is now downtown of our city. The city I was born in is now a city of over a million inhabitants, but in the 60s and 70s it was a small city. Many times I remember we didn't lock our doors when we went to bed. If we remembered, that was ok; but it was also ok if we didn't remember. On more than one night, we'd find my dad's best friend on our couch in the morning sleeping or more aptly passed out. As kids we were never alarmed that he was there, we would just run past him and carry on with our day. Back then Calgary seemed to be a safe enough place. Back then my mom would kick us out for the day in the summertime only to be called in for lunch, supper then bedtime. I miss back then sometimes.

That day I sat down at the table and had some breakfast - something crunchy and bland enough that we'd all eat it, but not totally without flavour, or we'd all not eat it. I got up and brought my bowl and spoon to the sink before pulling on my running shoes. I loved our neighbourhood. The place was crawling with children with my family having 5 too. There were always new neighbours on our right - at this time they were the Wards - mostly all boys six or seven of them with two sisters. Children were everywhere on the left, the right, across the street, down the street - it was just a very family oriented neighbourhood.

That particular summer day I didn't really have any plans. Sometimes we'd go in our old wooden garage and build a fort with various wooden beams we'd find. Other days we'd go to the Planetarium and ride down its steep hills before skidding out before we hit traffic. My mom never knew we did that, or we'd probably never get to go there again. It's funny how as children you just know what your mom and dad will approve of or not. We also liked to ride our bikes to Prince's Island Park and play around there, but that was a bit farther away. None of these plans came together yet as it was still early.

I started skipping rope in the front waiting to see if any of my friends would be going by and then we could make some plans, but instead I saw a car slowing down in front of our house which made me stop skipping and just stand there watching to see who it was. I thought it was for my dad because sometimes his friends would come by or he'd be getting picked up to go work out of town. As I waited they continued to slowly drive to the next house and stop. I was starting to lose interest and was going to go to the back and look for my cat Cassie when I heard the car door open and saw something roll out of the car. I stopped and didn't know what to do. It was a woman. She looked dead to me as she didn't move. There was no screaming, no fighting, just her quiet roll and flop onto the grass. The car pulled away a little faster than it had come in and when it was gone, I ran inside.

I found my dad at the kitchen table reading the newspaper. He looked over his paper when I came into the kitchen. "Dad, there's a lady on the front lawn. Someone threw her out of a car. I think she's dead." He got up right away and followed me out the door.

We got to where she was lying on the grass and he was looking at her. He said, "Well she's not dead." He tried shaking her shoulder and talking to her, but she didn't stir. He didn't know what was wrong, but he picked her up and brought her in the house. My mom had made up one of our rooms for her, and that's where this woman stayed until the next morning.

Fast forward to the next day, my dad was getting ready for work. My mom was fussing over his breakfast as she always made him big breakfasts and big lunches to take with him. I was downstairs too as I always liked to say bye to my dad when he left for work. I don't remember any of my other siblings being up yet, but while we were all in the kitchen, the lady we found in the grass walked into the kitchen.

She looked around at us and my dad said, "Good morning, would you like some coffee or breakfast?"

She nodded her head and asked, "Where am I?"

"We found you on the grass in front; you're in Calgary."

"Did you see my glasses?"

My dad said, "No." But then turned to me and said, "Go check out front and see if there's anything there."

So I ran dutifully out on my mission, but didn't find anything. I also thought by then someone else could have found anything she had if it were in the grass.

When I came back in, she was still just standing at the doorway when I told her, "There was nothing there." She thanked us all and left. She didn't have coffee or breakfast, but I remember thinking how my dad didn't let her just lay out in the street and how he asked her if she wanted breakfast or coffee as he would any other guest of our home. I thought about that event many times over my life and a lot after it happened.

My dad and mom sheltered and so protected her when she couldn't do that for herself. He also treated her as a welcome guest in our home and was respectful to her regardless of how she came to be in our home. This is only one incident that I remember my dad making an everlasting impact on me, but there were many more. If I could talk to him, I'd retell this story and say thanks for making me think about how I treat my fellow humans.