I woke up early on Dec. 22, planning to drive my boyfriend to the Pearson International Airport for his afternoon flight. He was flying back to Halifax to visit his family over Christmas. Until we went to put his luggage in the car, we had no idea what awaited us outside.
Trees were down and branches littered the road. Everything was covered in ice, our car was frozen shut. I had never seen anything like it.
Needless to say, my boyfriend didn’t make his flight. He rescheduled for later that night, but almost missed it again when we couldn’t find gas. Since the power was out almost everywhere it took an hour to find an open station.
By Christmas day, the people in the building across from me still had no power. I was fortunate enough to be one of two buildings in the area that did.
I felt guilty eating Christmas dinner in the warmth of my apartment when I knew my neighbours were freezing and hungry. They weren’t even able to shower or flush toilets. The lineups for the bathroom at the mall across the street went from one end to the other. People slept on the floor while others charged their phones in the outlets. It was like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.
This was one Christmas I will never forget.
