"Everything Worked Out Fine"
A mother of a young child need never have any worries about her child's welfare when she has placed that child in the trusted care of her parents. Or one of her parents. Say, for example, the child's mother opts to spend a few relaxed and intimate hours with her mother, her child's grandmother. They are speaking quietly to one another, sitting in the comfort of the grandparents' rural home, and busying their nimble fingers, making bracelets.
Child's mother is relaxed, knowing her six-year-0ld boy who simply adores his grandfather - and of course granddad returns the compliment in spades - is having a good time in his granddad's company. Boys being boys, they appreciate being together with adult males. It's never boring. The same can't be said of being around females of any age; what happens is so boringly predictable. Only good thing about being in the company of mother, grandmother, is they bake cookies.
But little boys can have it all. Out for the day with their male relatives, then returning to the house where they're welcomed with milk and fresh-baked cookies. Even uncles and grandfathers enjoy eating those cookies. It's a boy-girl thing that we're socialized to recognize and react to, isn't it? Except, sometimes the maturity and good sense of some adult males seems to be little better than that of the young boys in their charge.
Put a snowmobile together with a man, and iffy weather conditions, and good sense kind of flies out of sight - if it was ever there to begin with. Which more or less explains how it was that little Cole who attends grade 1 in Belleville, Ontario, and just visiting in the company of his mother, with family in Navan, ended up in the freezing, cold waters of ice-melting Bearbrook Creek.
He should have been zooming along on that snowmobile ride his grandfather had promised him. They started out right in front of grandfather's house all right, but then the snowmobile trail meets with a narrow bridge and on to a farmer's field. And that thin layer of ice still left along the creek didn't look like a problem to granddad.
"I thought, OK, we'll be in four or five inches of water. That doesn't make a difference. I thought we'd cross slowly. It's a lot deeper than I thought from the flooding. The current pushed us off the trail into the creek." Oh, surprise. The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority broadcast warnings to Ottawa Valley residents, of melting snow and ice causing flooding conditions; the mild approach of spring melting the thin layer of ice on lakes, rivers and creeks.
Additional firefighters arrived, with an inflatable boat, the firefighters dressed in wetsuits, while a helicopter circled above. "Our paramedics undressed him to take all the wet clothing off. They wrapped him up in dry sheets. They put hot packs under his arms, and they brought him into the ambulance where they cranked the heat up."
Then followed an exciting drive to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario where little Cole was admitted in serious but stable condition, treated and released. "Everything worked out fine", said grandfather.
Any consideration being given to charging grandfather with endangering the life of a dependent child? Any consideration given to fining grandfather what it cost the taxpayer to ring out the firefighters, the paramedics, the helicopter?
Child's mother is relaxed, knowing her six-year-0ld boy who simply adores his grandfather - and of course granddad returns the compliment in spades - is having a good time in his granddad's company. Boys being boys, they appreciate being together with adult males. It's never boring. The same can't be said of being around females of any age; what happens is so boringly predictable. Only good thing about being in the company of mother, grandmother, is they bake cookies.
But little boys can have it all. Out for the day with their male relatives, then returning to the house where they're welcomed with milk and fresh-baked cookies. Even uncles and grandfathers enjoy eating those cookies. It's a boy-girl thing that we're socialized to recognize and react to, isn't it? Except, sometimes the maturity and good sense of some adult males seems to be little better than that of the young boys in their charge.
Put a snowmobile together with a man, and iffy weather conditions, and good sense kind of flies out of sight - if it was ever there to begin with. Which more or less explains how it was that little Cole who attends grade 1 in Belleville, Ontario, and just visiting in the company of his mother, with family in Navan, ended up in the freezing, cold waters of ice-melting Bearbrook Creek.
He should have been zooming along on that snowmobile ride his grandfather had promised him. They started out right in front of grandfather's house all right, but then the snowmobile trail meets with a narrow bridge and on to a farmer's field. And that thin layer of ice still left along the creek didn't look like a problem to granddad.
"I thought, OK, we'll be in four or five inches of water. That doesn't make a difference. I thought we'd cross slowly. It's a lot deeper than I thought from the flooding. The current pushed us off the trail into the creek." Oh, surprise. The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority broadcast warnings to Ottawa Valley residents, of melting snow and ice causing flooding conditions; the mild approach of spring melting the thin layer of ice on lakes, rivers and creeks.
"It's scary when you're with a little guy in water. I told him to hang tight. Once he realized I was holding him in the water, he was OK. He calmed down. I was losing ground, so I looked around and there was a tree. Once I grabbed the branch I could pull myself in. When I got my strength back, I lifted him up. There's one branch with a big curve in it. I put him in that curved part. I was telling him everything is going to be good.""I was afraid to leave him there. I stayed with him about a half-hour, talking to him, telling him 'you have to stay in the tree no matter what'." And then, grandpa swam to shore and ran to his house to call 911. The rescue turned out to be rather complicated. Ottawa firefighters who had rushed to the area were confounded: "They couldn't do anything. Nobody could get to him."
Additional firefighters arrived, with an inflatable boat, the firefighters dressed in wetsuits, while a helicopter circled above. "Our paramedics undressed him to take all the wet clothing off. They wrapped him up in dry sheets. They put hot packs under his arms, and they brought him into the ambulance where they cranked the heat up."
Then followed an exciting drive to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario where little Cole was admitted in serious but stable condition, treated and released. "Everything worked out fine", said grandfather.
Any consideration being given to charging grandfather with endangering the life of a dependent child? Any consideration given to fining grandfather what it cost the taxpayer to ring out the firefighters, the paramedics, the helicopter?
Labels: Family, Human Relations, Ontario, Ottawa, Sports
posted by Pieface @ 6:36 PM
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