Remembering a gruelling winter

By Taewon Kook

Last winter was the worst I have ever experienced. For one week, I was trapped in my home, unable to get out and do my usual activity. The neighborhood was besieged by snow and ice. By the fifth day, I shouted, “Mother Nature! Stop being a frosty Matriarch!”

I was being tested to my limit by a force far beyond my control.

My mother heard me shouting and scolded: “Son, I am a mother too. Do not insult another one when I am at home.” However, I sensed that she was half-joking, dealing with a situation as frustrating to her as it was to me. We’d decided to live in Port Moody because of its mild climate, but Mother Nature caught us off guard. It was as if she had gotten she got bored with rainy winters.

To add to the frustration, the city of Port Moody was inept in accommodating seniors and people with mobility issues and assistive devices. Thin sheets of ice and snow covered my usual routes, and I had to drive so carefully to avoid slippery spots since they couldn’t clear the sidewalks well enough for my wheelchair to get up and around.

We didn’t know how to deal with what was perhaps a usual winter for the rest of Canada, but was a tiring one for us. Remembering those days is depressing, but writing about them now is good for my soul.