Eight Ottawans honoured for bravery at Rideau Hall

By Tony Lofaro, The Ottawa Citizen - February 24, 2012

Gov. Gen. David Johnston presents a Medal of Bravery to Colleen Taylor at Rideau Hall, Feb. 24, 2012.
Photograph by: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen

Colleen Taylor wasn’t dressed for a water rescue attempt, but that didn’t stop her from saving her neighbour after the woman fell into the icy waters of Jiulia Lake, near Carp.

“I remembering walking out onto the ice cautiously because I had these high-heeled boots on and my leather jacket. I wasn’t wearing any rescue equipment,” said Taylor, 43, an account manager at Champlain LHIN, about the Nov. 28, 2008 incident.

Taylor and her selfless act were recognized at a ceremony Friday morning at Rideau Hall. Gov. Gen. David Johnston presented three Stars of Courage and 43 Medals of Bravery at the ceremony, which honoured eight Ottawans and 38 others from across the country. The Decorations for Bravery were created in 1972 to recognize people who risked their lives to save or protect the lives of others.

Taylor said she also credits her daughter Emma in the rescue attempt of her former neighbour. It was Emma who noticed one of the dogs was in the lake and the neighbour was attempting a rescue. Moments later, the woman fell into the water and Taylor grabbed a dog leash in an effort to rescue her.

“I extended the leash as far as it went, lay down on the ice and tossed it to her. I instructed her to wrap it around her hand and I just dragged her until about six feet from the edge of the ice and then pulled her with my hands,” she said.

“At the time you just do things, it’s very practical and I’m almost embarrassed about getting this award because it doesn’t seem like a big deal. It doesn’t seem like what anybody else wouldn’t do,” she said.

Peter Nesbeth and Lindsy Richardson were OC Transpo Special Constables who didn’t hesitate to rescue a man from a vehicle only moments before it exploded into flames. On Sept. 25, 2008, the elderly man had mistakenly driven his car onto the transitway and afterwards crashed it into a tree near the Billings Bridge transit stop. The constables arrived at the accident scene to find an unconscious man trapped in his car. They pulled him to safety just before the flames erupted.

“I opened up the driver’s side door, the man was inside but he was not responding. I pulled off his seatbelt and basically dragged him out of the car,” said Richardson, 35, now an Ottawa Police constable.

“It was like pulling a heavy rag doll out of the vehicle, there are no leverages or anything,” he said.

Nesbeth said they had followed the errant driver from the east end transitway when he was spotted going the wrong way.

“When I got there the wheels of the car were spinning very fast and there was smoke everywhere. I knew something was wrong,” said Nesbeth, 48.

“I got to the car and there was a lot of smoke, I thought he would pass out from all the smoke. I started pounding on the passenger’s window with my baton, but it broke. So I came around to the driver’s side door and we began to pull him out, but his foot was caught between the gas pedal and the brake. I had to take his shoe off,” he said.

As they began to pull the unconscious man out of the smoky vehicle, an explosion erupted, he said.

“We kind of just dropped him, and we just kind of freaked out, it was frightening. The car then began to go up in flames, so we grabbed him again,” said Nesbeth, adding that the fire department and ambulance arrived shortly afterwards

The story behind bravery awards for three Ottawa police constables is also a gripping one. Const. Karen Mary Desaulniers, Const. Allen George Percival and Const. Avery Curt Flanagan were heading back to headquarters on Oct. 12, 2007 when they heard a call for a van submerged in the Rideau Canal.

It was later discovered that the 50-year-old driver had suffered a heart attack, veered off Colonel By Drive, smashed through a guard rail and plunged into the canal. He was pronounced dead three hours later in hospital.

Desaulniers was the first to jump into the waters. Flanagan and Percival pulled the driver from the van, then all three remained in the frigid water, trying to determine if there was another passenger. “Training mode kicks in and you just kind of go with it,” said Flanagan in a recent interview. “I never really had time to think. You just react.”

Other Ottawa recipients who received Medals of Bravery include Paul George Akehurst and Sgt. Lorraine Fequet.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Eight+Ottawans+honoured+bravery+Rideau+Hall/6206837/story.html#ixzz1nSlvcm5W

Governor General Medal of Bravery

Colleen Taylor, M.B.
Ottawa, Ontario
Medal of Bravery

On November 28, 2008, Colleen Taylor risked her life to rescue a woman from a possible drowning, in Jiulia Lake, in Carp, Ontario. The woman had been walking her dog when it ran out to chase a goose and fell into the freezing water, several metres from shore. The woman tried to rescue her dog, but she, too, broke through the ice. Ms. Taylor was driving by when she saw the woman struggling to get out of the water. Moving carefully across the thin ice until she was only a few metres from the victim, Ms. Taylor threw one end of a dog leash to the woman, who grabbed on tightly. Ms. Taylor got down on her stomach and, with great determination, pulled the victim out and brought her to shore.

Early and late

When I was putting the blog entry about the garage together, I realized that I didn't take any photos of the garage itself, so I am including a few photos that Freda took with her cell phone.

This photo was taken after the garage door frames were moved. We asked for 9'6" doors, which was the biggest that could fit in the space so that's what she drew on the plans.  The contractor realized that size of doors wouldn't fit because of the chimney, but he built it that way anyway, and then had to go and change it!  Doh!  Note that the window on the far side of the garage is not installed yet in this photo.

This is after the window was installed.

This is the view of the door to the back yard.  Tawny is standing on the steps to the new mud room.

Tawny enjoying sniffing at the Bruce Pit dog park.  A gorgeous day.

Taz and Tawny saying hello to another dog at Bruce Pit.  You would think their tails would get tired, because they are wagging constantly for the entire time that they are there.  Perhaps that's one reason why they are totally exhausted afterwards.

Electrical final complete

I took this photo through the window from the office - for some reason the camera focussed on the screen - funny! This is the vehicle from the inspector from the Electrical Safety Authority who came to do the final inspection of all the electrical work that I did.

So our electrical permit is closed - everything is complete.

Final inspections complete

We had our final inspections on our bathroom renovations with no problems. The plumbing inspection was last Thursday and the final building inspection was on Monday.

Only a couple of small things left to do:
- main bath: hang medicine cabinet on the wall
- ensuite: finish vanity (just waiting for the doors to come so they can be installed) then install the baseboard on the wall beside the vanity, put a bead of caulk at the toekick of the vanity, in case any water spills it will prevent it from running down into the basement ceiling.


And I took the building permit off the wall - WOOHOO!!

Weekend of destruction (part 2)

As the mayhem continued in the basement, we were trying to get the bedrooms upstairs ready for painting.

Freda putting a coat of primer on the ceiling.

...while the mayhem continues in the basement. We piled up the old ceiling tiles and carried them out in stacks. Things like the paneling that we could take out and pile, we did. Loose bits of debris we took out in garbage cans and dumped on top of the panel piles when we ran out of garbage cans. The dumpster people came and loaded it all up on Monday.

One of the hardest workers I have ever seen!

This is the 'green room' after it was primed.

Mayhem aftermath...

This is the result of the first day of mayhem.


In the "bedroom" in the basement, the walls of the closet are taken down, and the ceiling tiles are down. There were also glass tiles glued to the wall, and they are gone too. We took those down carefully so we wouldn't have shards of glass mixed in with the other debris.

The glass tiles are leaning against the wall in back corner (on the right). But this photo shows the mould that was growing on the drywall. First we cut off the bottom two feet of drywall and carefully bagged it. Everyone was wearing respirators during this step. Once the mouldy drywall was taken down, then the rest of the crew could go in and start their demolition.

Removing the wallpaper in the office exposed the various colours that this room has been painted. There were a lot of patches to be done because of all the naill holes from the paneling, but also just because.

The room that was a dark pea soup green also had lots of patches to be done.

Weekend of destruction (part 1)

We took possession of our new house on Thursday. Before we even got the keys, I had cut down the huge shrubs/trees by the post light. On Friday, some friends came over and helped us with start with removing panelling (yesterday's post), drywall repair and painting. On Friday evening, some other friends came over to help us with the demolition in the basement, removing the old panelling, ugly stained and mismatching ceiling tiles, and taking out a non-load-bearing wall that separates the kitchen and dining room.

Here Freda is making the first hole in the wall from the kitchen to the dining room.

Removing the ceiling tiles in the basement. The paneling has already been removed from the wall on the right. It was very dusty so everyone was wearing dust masks.

Here you can see some of the aftermath.

This is an in-progress photo of the "bedroom" that was in the basement.

More later...

The Office transformation... (part 1)

This is the photo of the bedroom that we will use as the office. There was paneling on one wall and part of the adjacent wall.

Freda removed the panelling, which was quite easy since they had just nailed small finishing nails into the drywall. Under that, we discovered wallpaper of some classic sports cars: Mustang convertible, Corvette fastback, Jaguar E-type, and a Valiant. A Valiant??? Go figure.

Of course, we stripped the wallpaper. This picture shows our friend Colette helping us out. The wallpaper came off very easily with just warm water applied with a sponge.

There was a very very bad drywall repair, so I cut out the section to repair it properly.

The Dream continues... a NEW dream house...

My devoted readers have certainly noticed a lack of updates on this blog. I apologize for that and can only say that is a direct result of us selling our previous dream house and purchasing a new dream house. This new dream house is significantly smaller than our old dream house (about the size that the old garage was!), but also needs significant renovations as it was built in 1959 and has never been updated.


The before photo: you can't really see the front door and a good part of the house. This photo is courtesy of Google Maps Streetview.

And after, now you can! This is 6 hours after taking possession. The post light also now can light up the area instead of being totally enveloped in the bushes...

I can't promise that I will make regular updates as to the renovation progress, but I will endeavour to do so. :)

Summer Berry Clafoutis

We had a few raspberries left from making the jam, and we saw this delicious looking recipe for Summer Berry Clafoutis in a magazine. It looked so good that I decided to try to make it. The instructions said it was easy to make, so that was a real bonus (especially for me!).

So I prepared the ingredients: egg, milk, flour, vanilla, salt, sugar, and butter.

I put the raspberries and blueberries in a buttered pan. I thought I would cook up a bit of rhubarb and add it, but I overdid the rhubarb and it is just sort of gloppy (as you can tell).

The pan is a bit too full because I used more fruit than the recipe called for in it. We had about 3 cups of raspberries left so I put them all in, even though the recipe only called for 2c of raspberries. Because of the added fruit, I added a bit extra sugar (actually, Splenda).

I poured the mixture over the berries and put it into the oven.


Taz was watchfully eyeing me with studied disinterest... I think he was hoping I was preparing something with meat in it. No such luck, buddy!

Because I had put too many berries in the pan, it took quite a bit longer for the dough mixture to cook through. And also it spilled over in the oven. :(

After it cooled off somewhat, we enjoyed a some of it with some whipped cream.

Overall evaluation: the recipe was easy to make, and absolutely was delicious!! I will definitely make it again but I won't add extra berries.

One of our neighbours gave us some rhubarb, so I decided to make Strawberry Rhubarb Compote. From what I can tell by looking at the recipes, compote is basically a fifty dollar word to say "stewed"...

I cut up the rhubarb and sprinkled it with some sugar and let it sit in the pot, so the juices would come out. I let it sit for a couple of hours. Then I put it on the stove to bring it to a boil and then simmered it for 10-15 minutes. Since strawberries are softer than rhubarb, and I wanted the strawberries to have a bit of texture to them, I cut up some strawberries and added it to the rhubarb mixture after it had been simmering for about 10 minutes. After it cooled for a while, I put the compote into a container and put it into the fridge overnight.

The clafoutis recipe said it was also delicious for breakfast, so Freda and I decided that we would have it for breakfast, along with some of the strawberry rhubarb compote. I added a dab of whipped cream because it sets off the deep reds and purple of the fruit. YUMMMY!!!!

Rasberry Jam - yumm!!!!

We went to some friends for Canada Day - it's sort of a Regina Refugee tradition. When we were there, Freda went over to get Wilma, who lives across the street. Wilma was in her back yard picking raspberries and invited Freda to go and pick some. So we did and we picked a large bowl full of plump juicy raspberries! Freda made two pies (need 4 cups each) and we had about the same amount again of fresh berries.

Wilma invited us to go and pick berries again, because they were so ripe they were just falling off the bushes, so we took Colleen (one of our neighbours) and did just that on July 3rd. Freda made another pie and I made jam - 3 batches in total.

This is a photo of the 2nd batch. I decided to do a double batch this time.

Stopped stirring for a second so I could take a photo. This is just before adding the sugar.

Here are the hot jars of jam, cooling off. It was nice hearing the click of the lids as they sealed. Only one jar didn't take, and that was the tall skinny jar at the back left row in this photo. It's in the fridge now and we will have that first.

The label for the raspberry jam: Picked and prepared on July 3, 2010.

Free tree!

The City of Ottawa delivered our free tree on Friday, along with a bag of shellfish compost and pine mulch.

This is a closeup of the leaves on the tree.

We had asked for a ginkgo biloba tree as our first choice. The Ginkgo Biloba has very distinctive leaves, so we didn't get our first choice. The Ginkgo Biloba is very unique and is very hardy against pests and harsh climactic conditions. This species of tree also has no other living relatives. But the most unique aspect of that tree is that it is a living fossil - it is from the Pilocene era.

For our second choice, we had asked for a Maple tree, which this is not. I couldn't remember what our 3rd choice was so I started googling for images of the leaves from the tree list on the city's web site, ignoring the maples and the ginkgo biloba, of course!

This is a photo of a serviceberry tree that I found on ecoterralandscape.com. I saw this photo and it reminded me that I had selected the serviceberry because its berries are good food for birds. The serviceberry is not a huge tree so having it relatively close to the garage is okay.

This is the info from the City of Ottawa web site about the serviceberry.

Can you read it? I'll transcribe it for you:
Botanical name/common name: Amelanchier spp. Serviceberry
Native to Ottawa: yes
Average height at maturity: 7 m
Average width at maturity: 4 m
Characteristics: white flowers and edible fruits
Summer colour: light green
Fall colour: red-orange


The tree has been planted, and I am watering it with the root feeder. I left it in the ground for almost an hour because only a little water comes out as the end is mostly clogged with a little stone that is stuck in the nozzle!

The Dying Elm

Before. The elm is dying because of Dutch Elm Disease. There are some green leaves, but not that many.

The tree is felled!

Trimming off the twiggy branches that are no good for firewood.

A truck load of tree trunk, good length for the wood stove.

Bugs and generators

some kind of flying insect that it looks like the fish would enjoy eating.

We had a 13 hour power outage on Sunday May 23rd and a 2 1/2 hour outage on Monday May 31st. This is our generator in action providing standby power to the necessities (fridge, freezer, well pump, sanitary pump, and a few lights and plugs)