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Lindsey and Jack
Former New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDonough said it best in the wake of her successor Jack Layton’s death from cancer on Monday, remarking that it was “cruel” for him to be lost just at the pinnacle of his political life, just as he was about to take up his new role of the Leader of the Opposition in this fall’s parliament, a role for which he had been preparing his whole life.
The word “cruel” was probably also used more than once this week as family and friends attended the Stouffville memorial service for 21-year-old Lindsey Sanders, who was killed by a pick-up truck as she was cycling on Brock Road south of Coppins Corners last Thursday afternoon (see our story on p. 7). It was a bright, beautiful day, perfect for cycling. Lindsey was just a couple of weeks away from returning to her classes in wildlife biology at Guelph University. Maybe she was thinking about that, or maybe she was thinking about an imminent meeting with her boyfriend Adrian Giacca, who ironically was praised in this same column last week for his design work on the Uxbridge skatepark. Many of our readers were probably reading about Adrian as Lindsey was making her way north on her bicycle.
Whatever Lindsey was thinking about, she was definitely not giving a thought to the vehicle overtaking her from behind. Unlike Jack Layton, who saw the end coming far enough in advance to write his eloquent letter to Canadians, released by his family only a few hours after his death, Lindsey Sanders had no time whatsoever to prepare for the end. No time to write farewells, no time to say goodbye to anyone.
We were fortunate, in the last few hours before we went to press, to be forwarded by the Durham Police a news release from their counterparts in Guelph. In the release, the Guelph Police said they were saddened by the “tragic loss” of this “caring, dynamic and special” young woman. Here’s why. In January of 2010, an 80-year-old woman with severe dementia went missing from a Guelph nursing home. Just as the police were about to mount an all-out search, they got a call to go to a fast-food restaurant. There, they found the woman with Lindsey Sanders and her college room-mate, who had found the lady wandering the streets and taken her someplace warm and safe.
The Guelph Police recognized that Lindsey and her friend had likely prevented a tragedy, and named them their 2010 “Citizens of the Year”. In their release this week, they said they hoped Lindsey’s “compassion and thoughtfulness would be remembered”.
Those qualities in Lindsey Sanders make her one of the young people that Jack Layton addressed in his letter as the hope of Canada’s future. Tragically, cruelly, Lindsey will not be a part of that future any more than Jack will. But, as Jack would say, that’s no reason at all not to believe in that future. In fact, the stories of Lindsey and Jack will undoubtedly inspire more young people, and more polticians (and those who are both, like Jack’s Quebec disciples), to make compassion and thoughtfulness the hallmarks of decision-making on the street, and in Canada’s halls of power, too.
We don’t know if Jack Layton and Lindsey Sanders ever crossed paths. But if they didn’t, they should have. They would have had a lot to talk about. And although, like Bob Rae said this week, life has a way of breaking your heart, it also has a way of making you sit up and be thankful - that people like Jack and Lindsey even came our way to begin with.
