Summer time in Winnipeg can be just gorgeous! It was another beautiful sunny day with the temperature hovering around 30C. I had got on a Portage bus heading downtown at around 2 o'clock. My plan was to do a little bit of window shopping and then to take in a movie. It was a day off from work and I was really enjoying the day.
There are some days when you are as young as I was then that you think you will live forever. You are in tip-top shape and looking forward to what the world has to offer you. No adventure is too difficult to enjoy. And so it was that I was riding the bus and looking out of the window at the passing scene on the north side of Portage Avenue. I was seated in the row behind the bus driver about halfway down to the rear of the bus. As we slowly passed the building that now houses the RCMP headquarters, my safe world took a strange and brutal turn.
A car started to enter Portage Avenue from Dominion Street. It was starting to turn west on Portage when suddenly out of nowhere a motorcycle appeared. It was obviously exceeding the speed limit and apparently the car driver did not see the motorcyclist's approach.
There was a horrendous thump as the motorcycle slammed into the car where the rear passenger seat was located. The driver was immediately hurtled at the roof of the car and continued in a cart-wheeling motion about a hundred feet through the air to land in a crumpled heap on the pavement.
There was no movement from the motorcyclist. By this time the bus had stopped and we, the passengers and the driver were looking aghast at what had just transpired. A crowd of people gathered in the area where the motorcyclist lay. By this time all westbound traffic on Portage Avenue had ground to a halt.
Soon you could hear the sirens of an ambulance approaching. The bus driver had to move on. I debated getting off and becoming part of the curious group gawking at the accident victim. But I didn't because I was still in shock.
That day I came to realize how tenuous is our grip on life on our good planet Earth. One second you are carefree, happy, and enjoying life. The next minute you can be dead. I learned via news reports that the motorcyclist had been killed instantly on impact with the car. He was dead and somewhere was his unsuspecting family still carrying on with their lives, unaware of how their lives would soon be impacted. The driver of the car would carry with him forever the pain of what had transpired in a moment of either inattention or carelessness. He would carry with him forever the fact he was partly responsible for the death of a human being.
That was 53 years ago and it is still seared into my memory. I think it was then that I learned to enjoy each day for what it offered because you never knew what |"fate" had in store for you!
There are some days when you are as young as I was then that you think you will live forever. You are in tip-top shape and looking forward to what the world has to offer you. No adventure is too difficult to enjoy. And so it was that I was riding the bus and looking out of the window at the passing scene on the north side of Portage Avenue. I was seated in the row behind the bus driver about halfway down to the rear of the bus. As we slowly passed the building that now houses the RCMP headquarters, my safe world took a strange and brutal turn.
A car started to enter Portage Avenue from Dominion Street. It was starting to turn west on Portage when suddenly out of nowhere a motorcycle appeared. It was obviously exceeding the speed limit and apparently the car driver did not see the motorcyclist's approach.
There was a horrendous thump as the motorcycle slammed into the car where the rear passenger seat was located. The driver was immediately hurtled at the roof of the car and continued in a cart-wheeling motion about a hundred feet through the air to land in a crumpled heap on the pavement.
There was no movement from the motorcyclist. By this time the bus had stopped and we, the passengers and the driver were looking aghast at what had just transpired. A crowd of people gathered in the area where the motorcyclist lay. By this time all westbound traffic on Portage Avenue had ground to a halt.
Soon you could hear the sirens of an ambulance approaching. The bus driver had to move on. I debated getting off and becoming part of the curious group gawking at the accident victim. But I didn't because I was still in shock.
That day I came to realize how tenuous is our grip on life on our good planet Earth. One second you are carefree, happy, and enjoying life. The next minute you can be dead. I learned via news reports that the motorcyclist had been killed instantly on impact with the car. He was dead and somewhere was his unsuspecting family still carrying on with their lives, unaware of how their lives would soon be impacted. The driver of the car would carry with him forever the pain of what had transpired in a moment of either inattention or carelessness. He would carry with him forever the fact he was partly responsible for the death of a human being.
That was 53 years ago and it is still seared into my memory. I think it was then that I learned to enjoy each day for what it offered because you never knew what |"fate" had in store for you!
