And speaking of attitude

Sal

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 29, 2007
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CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Saturday, January 18, 2014 10:03PM EST
Last Updated Sunday, January 19, 2014 8:51AM EST




No one was searching for Verna Zwarich, 89, as she lay on the floor of a farm shed with a broken hip for three nights in freezing temperatures.
But the Saskatchewan woman never lost hope.
“I just thought about good things,” she told CTV Saskatoon. “I thought how nice and warm it would be to be home.”


Zwarich left her family home in Hanley, Sask. on Oct. 9 to do yard work at her farm, which she has been managing by herself.
While cleaning the yard, she fell and broke her hip. She crawled to her truck and tried to lift herself into the vehicle, but the pain was overwhelming. She was helpless and alone, with no cell phone and no family nearby.


She waited as cars drove by on a nearby gravel road, but no one stopped to help her.
“I thought surely somebody’s going to stop,” she said. “But they go so fast.”


Temperatures dropped as the day went on, and Zwarich managed to drag herself to a nearby shed where she stayed from Wednesday night until Saturday morning.
She found two thin blankets, but no food and no water. She fought off mice with a stick and listened as coyotes howled in the yard.
“People ask me, ‘Weren’t you scared?’ I said, ‘What? What of? I’m not scared of those mice; they’re not going to hurt me.’”

On Saturday morning, the day before Thanksgiving, Zwarich left the shed and crawled back to her truck. It wasn’t until around 10:30 p.m. that she was found by neighbours who had been asked by family members to search of her.
“My temperature was 26 (C) and I was really cold,” she said.
Zwarich was rushed to a Saskatoon hospital where she underwent an emergency operation on her hip. After weeks of recovery, she is now back home.
And the near-death experience hasn’t stopped her from wanting to get back to work. She says she’s looking forward to returning to the farm this spring, though this time with a cellphone.



Read more: 89-year-old Verna Zwarich breaks hip, survives four days alone in farm shed | CTV News
 

SLM

The Velvet Hammer
Mar 5, 2011
29,151
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London, Ontario
This is why even regardless of age or state of health it's a good idea to always let someone know when you're going somewhere. So they might think to notice if you've not returned. And checking in on a regular basis with someone who lives alone is also a good idea, but especially when someone is elderly.
 

Sal

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 29, 2007
17,135
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This is why even regardless of age or state of health it's a good idea to always let someone know when you're going somewhere. So they might think to notice if you've not returned. And checking in on a regular basis with someone who lives alone is also a good idea, but especially when someone is elderly.
hell I like when people check in on me...lol

I am glad she is going to get a cell phone for the next trip, she is feisty.
 

SLM

The Velvet Hammer
Mar 5, 2011
29,151
3
36
London, Ontario
hell I like when people check in on me...lol

I am glad she is going to get a cell phone for the next trip, she is feisty.

Oh hell yeah, she is.

But we should all put more thought into things like that, well before we reach 89! Lol.

I mean, I have my daughter here with me now but before she moved in how would someone know if I made it home on a Friday night? The people I work with wouldn't find anything odd until Monday and unless I already had specific plans with a friend or one of my kids happened to call or text, it's entirely possible that I could be missing for two plus days before anyone would know I was gone.

It's just smart to have some kind of contact with someone in the event something happens when you live on your own. So someone will clue in relatively early that something might be amiss.

But hats off to her and her attitude for sure.
 

Sal

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 29, 2007
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Oh hell yeah, she is.

But we should all put more thought into things like that, well before we reach 89! Lol.

I mean, I have my daughter here with me now but before she moved in how would someone know if I made it home on a Friday night? The people I work with wouldn't find anything odd until Monday and unless I already had specific plans with a friend or one of my kids happened to call or text, it's entirely possible that I could be missing for two plus days before anyone would know I was gone.

It's just smart to have some kind of contact with someone in the event something happens when you live on your own. So someone will clue in relatively early that something might be amiss.

But hats off to her and her attitude for sure.
I agree.

Sometimes too when we live with someone there is also a false sense of safety and security. Friday night I watched a show where a woman spoke of planting flowers in her beds. Her husband came home, it was their anniversary, they were going out to celebrate so she told him to come back out for her at 3:45. He never came back. He went into the house. There was a stranger in there who had noticed the wife planting flowers, taken a fancy to her and was waiting for the woman to come in.

He killed her husband, waited for her, bound and tied her and took her back to his house where he kept her captive for over 100 hours until she managed to escape.

At first the police thought she had done it and fled. Then they thought she had been taken and was dead.

Life is strange and strange things happen.
 

SLM

The Velvet Hammer
Mar 5, 2011
29,151
3
36
London, Ontario
I agree.

Sometimes too when we live with someone there is also a false sense of safety and security. Friday night I watched a show where a woman spoke of planting flowers in her beds. Her husband came home, it was their anniversary, they were going out to celebrate so she told him to come back out for her at 3:45. He never came back. He went into the house. There was a stranger in there who had noticed the wife planting flowers, taken a fancy to her and was waiting for the woman to come in.

He killed her husband, waited for her, bound and tied her and took her back to his house where he kept her captive for over 100 hours until she managed to escape.

At first the police thought she had done it and fled. Then they thought she had been taken and was dead.

Life is strange and strange things happen.

Yeah if we planned for every single contingency, we'd not have a life at all. But along with admiring her resolve and how she's not letting this incident derail her life and how she lives it, I couldn't help but wonder how easily it would be for so many people to end up in these predicaments and no one comes looking or at least not for a long time.

But I suppose many people who end up in some remote ditch for a few days often ponder the same thing.
 

Sal

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 29, 2007
17,135
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48
Yeah if we planned for every single contingency, we'd not have a life at all. But along with admiring her resolve and how she's not letting this incident derail her life and how she lives it, I couldn't help but wonder how easily it would be for so many people to end up in these predicaments and no one comes looking or at least not for a long time.

But I suppose many people who end up in some remote ditch for a few days often ponder the same thing.
Like that teacher in TO who is missing. So much speculation. Is he in a ditch or Tahiti?

And of course you are right about the contingency plans but some seem obvious such as this one. The other that I thought the same of, bless their heart, was the old couple with all of their savings stored in the house in a nice box all ready for take away. We can't cover everything but somethings are more easily avoided than others. But then even the best laid plans I guess etc.