Bernie is back to enjoy the view
By Hugh Adami, Ottawa Citizen August 21, 2011
Bernie McDonald loves airplanes. That's one reason why he goes to Macdonald-Cartier International Airport almost daily, for several hours at a time, sitting in his wheelchair to watch takeoffs and landings.
He usually packs a lunch, buys a coffee or two, chats with workers and, occasionally, a traveller, and even surveys some construction work going on outside.
Para Transpo picks up the 83-year-old at his Elmvale Acres apartment about 9: 30 a.m. - later on Sundays because he goes to church - drops him off, and then returns about 5: 30 p.m. to take him home.
That's a long day and he's been known to nod off at the airport while reading the paper.
His stepdaughter, Deborah Desroches, sometimes meets him there for coffee after she finishes work.
When Bernie's wife, Marjorie, was alive, the couple would even do their planewatching from a spot off Limebank Road, with a lunch, lawn chairs and binoculars.
Though Bernie's visits to the airport go back 30 years, he now spends a lot more time there. He started going regularly in 2006, when Marjorie's death left a huge hole in his life.
Desroches says his airport visits as well as the ones he sometimes makes to the Billings Bridge and St. Laurent shopping malls help him "pass away the loneliness."
Bernie still lives in the same apartment that he shared for years with Marjorie.
"He doesn't like being in the apartment and being surrounded by all the memories. It's really, really hard," Deroches says.
The couple met in 1975 after Desroches' biological father died in 1974.
Bernie was still working 12-hour shifts in 2007 - he was 79 - but had to finally quit because his legs were giving him trouble.
He was a night security guard at a condominium building, and there were a lot of steps to climb while doing the rounds.
Last year, he underwent a quadruple bypass and suffered a minor stroke during the operation. He can still walk, but his balance is somewhat off. So he feels more secure in Marjorie's old wheelchair when he's out and about.
Bernie has become such a fixture at the airport that if he misses a day or two, someone there who knows him will check up on him.
His cellphone rang recently and the caller asked: "Bernie, are you OK? Why haven't you been to the airport?"
Paul Benoit, the airport authority's president and chief executive, says he, too, often sees Bernie in the facility and has talked to him.
"He's the nicest guy in the world," says Benoit, noting that Bernie is always well-dressed and wellgroomed, and absolutely no bother.
So imagine Benoit's dismay on Thursday when he read an e-mail that had been sent through his assistant late Wednesday night. A copy of the same e-mail arrived at the Citizen at 11: 15 p.m.
It was from Desroches, who said her stepfather had been approached by an Ottawa police officer Tuesday afternoon. Bernie was apparently told he was trespassing on private property and he should not return unless he was getting on a plane. Bernie said OK and took the bus home.
"I find it very sad that an elderly man in his 80s (who) is not a threat to anyone, but just very lonely, is not allowed to be somewhere he feels is a safe and friendly environment to help take away some of the loneliness he feels," Desroches said.
Bernie did not ask his daughter to get involved. He accepted the warning and told her he would just end up spending more time at shopping malls. She says he gasped when she told him she had written Benoit and also notified the Citizen. (Bernie did not want to be interviewed for this story.)
The treatment of her stepfather gnawed at Desroches. Why would a police officer be so heavy-handed with a disabled senior citizen?
Benoit says whoever approached Bernie "wasn't minding his own business."
Though the airport has issued warnings under Ontario's Trespass to Property Act to deal with workers involved in labour disputes or unsavoury types, Benoit says the trespassing law is not something to use on "a really nice gentleman" who likes spending time at the airport.
After making inquiries, Benoit's reply to Desroches was quick and contrite. "I am probably almost as upset as you are," wrote Benoit in his e-mail. He told her that a directive was sent to all officers assigned to airport duty "that your father is always welcome here."
Benoit says at first, he was led to believe that it probably wasn't a police officer who was involved. But Bernie was able to identify him. Benoit says the officer explained to his superior that he just told Bernie the airport "wasn't a place for him to stick around in."
Friday morning, Bernie was back at his old haunt, accompanied by his stepdaughter. They mingled with a few of Bernie's friends. Benoit was waiting for a long meeting to end so he could buy them coffee and apologize in person.
Says Desroches: "He's very happy to be back. But it took a lot of convincing from me that he was free to go back. He was afraid of being sent to jail."
They also saw the officer in question. This time, he just walked by, presumably minding his own business.
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Link:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Bernie+back+enjoy+view/5284847/story.html#ixzz1VzqGVloA
I just got the impression from the tone of some posts on this thread that people will go out of their way to find her and talk to her so they can say they have--I sure hope that is not really the case. She sounds like a sweet lady who enjoys meeting people she encounters in the natural be and flow of guests at the GF and i would just hate for anyone to make her into anything other than that, ya know?
I certainly have not carefully read every word in the thread. I guess the impression I got from her sister was that it is nice if people who are int he GF anyway drop over and say hi (like it sounds like you will do) not that she wants people to go out of their way to head to the GF in the hopes of seeing Lynn. I could well be wrong though. Maybe Lynn wants to become an attraction.
