Man…are we trapped in the Twilight Zone, or what?
What was supposed to be a hum-drum Easter long weekend in Cornwall and area has turned into a hellish few days with death, destruction and generally awful news.
Things got started on Good Friday with the decidedly tragic report that a Cornwall man had been killed in an overnight fire.
It went from bad to worse as the weekend was rounded out with another tragedy on Edward Street in Cornwall where an elderly woman lost her life in yet another fire.
Investigators attributed both incidents to lit cigarettes.
And if that wasn’t bad enough there were a pair of other fires of note – one in Williamstown where 30 firefighters were called in to battle a blaze at a clubhouse and another in Cornwall where a dryer was burned up.
Oh yah – that’s all on top of a first-degree murder where police are alleging a Cornwall man killed his mother.
What else you might ask?
Oh nothing…just the fact that what used to be Cornwall’s signature summertime event has been cancelled.
Lift-Off organizers confirmed our breaking news report today that the 2015 edition of the hot-air balloon festival will be grounded.
Sigh.
While there is every hope that it will return in 2016, the organizers will have a hard enough time paying off debt measured in the tens of thousands of dollars, let alone put together another successful event next year.
I think that just about covers it, though as I am writing this there’s every possibility that the power dam will collapse, a plane will crash into the Seaway building or we’ll get 30 cm of snow.
In this small-city newspaper game the bad news often comes in waves, though I can’t remember a tsunami nearly as bad as the last few days.
The tragedy of all the deaths and damage caused by the fires, not to mention the murder, are isolated incidents and shouldn’t be confused with a sudden souring of the local social fabric.
The Lift-Off announcement, though, should not come as a surprise.
The event has been struggling for some time, despite the best efforts of volunteers who have put in blood, sweat and tears these last few years to keep the balloons flying.
You could almost see this coming as we are now into April and even Ribfest has begun announcing its entertainment lineup for the looming pork pig out, while there had been nothing from the Lift-Off camp.
It’s a shame…not nearly on par with a trio of tragic weekend deaths in Cornwall, but it speaks to all the bad news we’ve been bombarded with as of late.
But there is good news out there, if you peel back the layers.
Little Mya Jackson underwent potentially life-altering brain surgery last week, and came through it smiling as only a five-year-old can. She had a massive NF2 tumour removed from her brain and was well enough to return home on the weekend.
The massive amount of community support that flowed in to her family, including her exhausted mother Tanya Lamarche, speaks to the resilience of our community.
People have also been asking about another good news story on the local medical field. Mike Scott, who underwent a heart transplant last week (you can’t write this stuff, folks) is doing well, said his wife Tia.
At last count Mike was alert and breathing on his own following a few days in a medically-induced coma while his battered body healed itself.
If things keep going well for Mike, he should make a full recovery. Not bad, considering doctors had essentially written him off following a massive heart attack a few months ago.
I guess the moral of this column is that there’s bound to be bad news…and sometimes you have to endure all the bad stuff at once.
But beyond the headlines there are stories that should make you smile, and feel proud about the people who make up our community.
Let’s try and remember those stories, too.
