Its Colin's birthday on July 10th. This year was his 45th birthday. It was also a Monday. I golf on Monday evenings in a lady's league. It's a lot of fun and I don't miss my opportunities to golf.
In order to celebrate Colin's birthday, we invited him to join us at our Condo's Stampede BBQ the day before. Most of the residents in our condo are seniors and most are well over 70 years of age. They made a little bit of a fuss over him and he loved it.
On Monday, the day of his birthday; I received several phone calls from him. Its not unusual. But at 2:30 pm; he called and he and his dad worked out the details regarding the fact that they were going to meet for supper without me to celebrate Colin's birthday.
When they finished, Dennis, Colin's Dad, handed the phone back to me and I am: ok Colin NOW what??? Its only the 7th or 8th call today so I am half listening. But what he said caught my attention.
Colin:
"Mom, there is smoke coming from the upstairs and the fire alarms are going off".
"What, where are you?"
Colin:
"In my basement suite."
Me: (I am still screaming)
"Get outside, get out, go into the back yard, right now, hurry up!!!"
Colin:
"But Mom, I am still in my pyjamas!!!" (PLEASE stop laughing)
Me:
"Colin, it does NOT matter, get outside now!!!"
Colin:
"OK"
In the meantime, I am dialling 911 on my land line as well as texting his supportive roommate. 911 agrees to send a firetruck and the roommate is on her way home. The firemen arrive before the roommate does and they do what they do best - break down the front door as there is obvious smoke billowing from the house and they deal with the source of the smoke.
I kept Colin on the phone with me the entire time so that I could ensure that he was safe at all times. I instructed him to get to the driveway; which he did; so that the firemen could know that he was there and that he was ok. In fact when the firemen got there we tried to give them the code to the garage door so that they would not have to break the door down, but they did not have time for that.
The smoke damage to the upstairs is extensive. Major smoke damage actually. Thankfully Colin called me and we were able to prevent any further damage. Thankfully, Colin's suite did receive only minor smoke damage, but not much.
We are so grateful that Colin is OK. Grateful that Colin LISTENS to me sometimes!!!
We are grateful to the Calgary Fire Department. They were quick and efficient.
Colin's roommates Ken and Linda are devastated. Their entire house has to be cleaned, dry cleaned, painted, washed, EVERYTHING in their house had to be removed. Its three weeks since this happened and they are still not fully recovered.
This event confirms for me that Colin is very independent and capable in many respects, but the fact that he called me rather than 911 directly; worries me. I believe that if I had not been available, he would have taken some action and gotten himself out of the house and finally asked for help, but precious minutes would have gone by without action from him.
Hopefully there is never a "next time", but if there is, perhaps Colin will do the right thing even if he is in his pyjamas!!!
