a letter

Yesterday afternoon, while driving home from work, I was tuned into The World Today as I am often wont to do. During the four o’clock news, there was a woefully short blurb about a seventy-one year old, wheelchair-bound man who was left in a HandyDart van overnight on Christmas Eve.
Sitting in my car, waiting for the light at Kingsway & Griffiths to turn green, I was completely overcome with emotion. I very nearly had to pull off the road to regain my composure enough to continue my commute.
I know most people won’t understand the depth of my reaction to this story, especially at a time when there are tens of thousands of lost lives half a world away. I find the plight of this elderly gentleman so heart-wrenching because it wasn’t an unexpected, unpredictable, uncontrollable act of nature which caused his suffering; it was due to someone rushing home on Christmas Eve, not giving so much as a second glance into the back of his vehicle just make sure it was empty. Neglect and lack of conscience caused this poor man to suffer on the one night of the year when everyone, EVERYONE, should have a warm, loving place to be.
While I recognize that news is business and time is precious, I had hoped to find some more information as to the victim’s location in order to, at the very least, send him a note or card to try to express to him my sincere regret that such a horrible, negligent, heart-breaking thing could happen to him. Unfortunately, at the time I write this, there is no mention of this story on the CKNW website which I can find.
I don’t know if you’re the right people to ask, but since I heard the story during your show, I’m taking the chance. Can you help me find out where I might send a card to the gentleman in the piece? I thank you for any information or direction you could provide.
I’m very fond of your show,
Heather L.
North Vancouver
(if i had date stamps on my entries, you’d see it’s 2:55 am right now.)
update:
thanks to shelagh and google news, i found many links to the story and superpages‘ search actually worked well enough this time for me to find both mr. halland’s nursing home address and his wife’s as well. i will be sending them both cards before the weekend is over. i’m still not sure if i’m going to send a letter to the town, which operates the shuttle, or the nursing home, for not noticing the gentleman hadn’t returned before bedtime.