By CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
COBDEN — Mansel Hill and his family are thankful three people stopped on Creamery Road in Cobden one cold, winter morning.
Sitting in his hospital room at Renfrew Victoria Hospital, Mr. Hill recalls the morning of Monday, Jan. 11. At 8 a.m., he wanted to go for a drive. His car doors were frozen. He eventually was able to open the driver’s door, warm up the car and head out about two hours later.
Driving onto Creamery Road, the passenger side door opened, so he stopped the car and went around to close it. He figures the door opened because he had opened it just enough when it was frozen shut that it was no longer latched.
As he walked around to the front of the vehicle, his right knee gave out and he fell onto the ice and snow-covered road.
“I couldn’t get up,” he recalled. “I didn’t have anything to grab onto.”
He also said when he tried to move, he couldn’t feel anything in his right leg. He tried to roll over, but wasn’t able to.
Terry Moore and township employees Roger Blaedow and Patsy Moore eventually found him laying on the ground.
“It seemed like a long time I was on the ground,” Mr. Hill recalled.
“They lifted me up and I couldn’t put any weight on my leg,” he said. “They carried me and put me in the car.”
Mr. Hill is thankful he was dressed for the cold.
His wife Olive, who was sitting nearby during the interview, believes her husband fell within 20 minutes of leaving home. She recalled that morning her husband leaving about 10 a.m. and Ms. Moore being at her door by about 10:25 to tell her that her husband had fallen and the ambulance had been called.
Mr. Moore said he and Sean Tanguay were working at a home on Creamery Road. While loading the truck, they saw the vehicle stopped on the road and someone laying under it. However, they thought someone was looking under their vehicle.
They went back inside the home and about five minutes came back out with more stuff to load into the truck and noticed the person was still under the vehicle.
“Sean said, ‘I think that guy’s in trouble,’ so we ran over,” Mr. Moore recalled.
That was when Mr. Blaedow arrived on the scene.
“We checked him out, just to make sure he didn’t his head or anything,” he said. “We lifted him up and put him in the passenger seat of his car.”
Mr. Hill’s leg was twisted quite badly and he was not able to put any weight onto it, Mr. Moore said.
Mr. Moore called an ambulance and Mr. Blaedow contacted Ms. Moore to contact Ms. Hill. She went to the Hill home and told Mr. Hill’s wife what had happened, that an ambulance had been called and that the car would be brought back home.
Mr. Hill was taken to Renfrew Victoria Hospital and then transferred to Montford Hospital in Ottawa where he was operated on for a broken hip.
A week later he was transferred back to Renfrew, where he remains, as he undergoes rehab therapy. It’s expected he could be home within a week’s time.
“I was lucky Terry came up that street,” Mr. Hill said from his hospital chair.Ms. Hill agreed.
“The boys were wonderful,” she said. “Lucky they showed up when they did.”
Ms. Hill said she isn’t surprised her husband fell, because it’s happened a few times while at home.
She said people have been so helpful and kind since this incident.
Lisa Clark, owner of The Little Coffee Shop on Main Street in Cobden, showed up at the hospital with a cup of coffee, a muffin and a card signed by the many patrons of the coffee shop, where Mr. Hill goes regularly for coffee and social time.
“That was nice of her,” Ms. Hill said, with Mr. Hill agreeing.
Looking to the future, Mr. Hill, who turns 93 in April, can no longer drive.
“My doctor told me no more driving,” he said. “I guess someone will have to come and pick me up.
However, Ms. Hill doesn’t believe that will be a problem.
As for walking by himself, Ms. Hill doesn’t like that idea.
“We’ll have to set up a buddy system,” she said with a laugh.
Mr. Hill said he is looking forward to getting home and gaining some weight. He’s lost weight because he can’t eat the hospital food.
“That doesn’t happen to me too often,” he said.
However, married for 68 years as of Feb. 5, Mr. Hill said his wife is a great cook and that’s why he can’t eat the hospital food.
