It’s been a tough week for Kaitlyn Crosby and Dalton Bonvie.
The young Cape Breton couple was living comfortably in Fort McMurray until the well documented wild fire destroyed their home.
Bonvie works for a trucking company in Fort McMurray. He was out of town working when fire ravaged their home which was in a portion of the city that was completely devastated by the blaze.
“It was pretty crazy. I woke up in the morning there, couldn’t even tell there was a fire. I thought, wow ,they did some good last night, they got the fire under control but then I got a call from my buddy in town and he told me I should go home and pack some stuff and in 45 minutes I wasn't able to get to the house so that’s how fast it came and took everything,” said Bonvie.
Meantime his girlfriend Kaitlyn Crosby was safe in Edmonton, but the fire literally left them with only their vehicle, their cat and the clothes on their back.
The couple decided to drive back home to Nova Scotia to pick up the pieces.
This morning, after sleeping in their car overnight, the couple pulled into the Algonquin Esso station at 4:45 a.m. to meet with Christine Johnson.
The North Bay resident created a Facebook page to help connect North Bay residents with Fort McMurray families who may be traveling through the area.
Johnson, originally from Blind River, found out about a similar Facebook page that Sault Ste. Marie area residents had created.
“I looked up the page, saw the request for assistance on the Highway 11 route of the young couples journey,” said Johnson who created “North Bay supporting Fort McMurray” Facebook page.
“I then started to chat with the person who made the request, found out the couple was going to stop here for the night. I couldn’t let them leave North Bay without some kind of gesture or assistance so I quickly made the page to see what kind of support it generated. It was all pretty quick.”
Johnson presented the couple with $100 in gas cards along with some fresh Tim Horton’s coffee to help them with their journey home to Cape Breton.
“I wanted to help them out because I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose everything and have nothing,” said Johnson.
The young New Glasgow, Nova Scotia couple hopes to be home late Monday night.
Bonvie says he hopes to find a job back home and then figure out if it’s worthwhile to head back to Fort McMurray again.
“Yeah, that’s the plan for now, go back home and try to find work there for a little while until things settle down in Fort McMurray. It would be pretty crazy there for a while now I guess,” he said.
The couple has been overwhelmed by the random acts of kindness from strangers across the country.
“We’ve met a lot of good people, like friends and people that will offer you anything like food, water and shelter and give you clothes and what not, so it’s been pretty good that way,” admitted Bonvie.
“Glad to be in Canada for sure.”
