HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, N.L. — Pauline Strangemore awoke to a shocking sight on the morning of Feb. 10: Happy Valley-Goose Bay had received a massive amount of snow overnight that had totally blocked the front of her house with eight feet of snow.
In case of an emergency, there was no way out.
“I almost died...I went straight back to bed because I didn't know what to do about it,” said Pauline. "Because all I had was a small, little shovel.”
Pauline lives with her son, Elvis Strangemore, who has muscular dystrophy. He was also sick with the flu and tonsillitis that morning.
The family found out how bad the snow situation was when a friend took a picture of the front of the Strangemores' house and sent it to Elvis via Facebook.
“You couldn't see out through the windows, the windows were snowed in, too,” said Elvis.
Knowing that they needed an exit in case of emergency, Pauline got to work shovelling from the inside with the few tools she had available.
“I had to get a chair, go out on the porch and start digging from the top, to make sure we could get out in case of a fire,” said Pauline.
“The front is our only exit; that's it. If there were a fire, we would have been screwed.”
Meanwhile, Elvis posted a message on Facebook, asking for anyone available to help dig out the front of their house. Later in the afternoon, longtime Happy Valley-Goose Bay resident Tyrone Hill, along with his father Darren Hill, arrived with a snowblower and shovel to help out, much to the delight of Pauline.
“I was so elated....I was crying. I was like: 'Go buddies!'”
Tyrone Hill believes that people should be expected to help each other out during tough times, especially in a small community like Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
“There's plenty of people in town that need help and, as a small community, we need to be there for each other; not for praise or gratitude, but for the sake of being who we are known to be (in Newfoundland and Labrador) .... some of the nicest people on earth .”
Elvis, much like his mother, was full of praise and gratitude for what Tyrone and Darren Hill did that day.
“They were amazing,” said Elvis. “It was great to see good Samaritans come help us out. Their kindness and generosity to help is just simply amazing and we couldn't thank them enough for doing it for nothing but the kindness in their hearts.”
