“Helllp! Where are we?! This isn’t the right way! I was wrong!”

It was a night to remember. A cold night.

Some wonderful angels must be thanked, but especially the ones at the end, who saved my husband John and me.

To set the scene:

As you can see, the main campus building of Loyola (now part of Concordia University) was erected many years ago (c. 1913-16). Since then, a slew of buildings have been added, featuring more departments and services, and – IMPORTANT TO KNOW – they are dotted alllll around the VAST expanse of campus acreage. Here’s a sample of a newer centre annexed to part of the original construction:

The above annex was more like the vintage of the building where John and I headed to last night, December 25th, for a giant Community Christmas dinner, as sketched in here:

I don’t have a photo of the “BUZZ Cafeteria” (students’ Dining Hall), but it looked similar to this. It had stairs, but also had a ramp for John to ascend with his walker.

So! First, before leaving, I spent some time on the phone arranging for our drive with the adapted transport service (changing the time twice). Then after we realized that the main door our driver brought us to would be too far from the cafeteria (John with his walker in the snowy slush), our angel driver insisted on taking us all around to the door of the cafeteria building itself – saving us a very long walk. And we found the exact place only because we asked an angel woman walking on the road near us who pointed it out! (It was dark and snowy; we were not familiar with any of the landscape here!)

Once inside, we beheld a GIANT room filled with rows of noisy folks, all ages, genders, and sizes, gobbling their (free!) turkey dinners – and soon we were among them! A huge thank-you to the many volunteers, angels all, for their continual, respectful, attentive service to the horde of people at the feast. They were amazing!

Okay. Glad you’re still here. You’re about to learn of our disturbing experience that took place after we left the cafeteria.

The adapted transport dispatcher had agreed to have us picked up at 6:30 p.m. to take us home. However, she would not agree to instruct the driver on exactly where we were in the “VAST expanse of campus acreage” – I’m quoting myself! 😜 She would only agree to pick us up at the main building. FAR from us. Sigh.

But I found a map of the campus on my phone! Sort of a map. A half-assed map, okay? But it was better than nothing – I thought. Actually, turned out it wasn’t…

See those scribbled tiny green lines on this so-called map? Totally useless in the dark and snow! We wandered on paths, with no signage. Saw roads, buildings, open areas, a couple of parked cars, but everything was dark and snowy (I think I mentioned that) and deserted! I didn’t mention that. And COLD.

Here’s poor John, trudging along with his Parkinson’s and his walker over the semi-packed bumpy snow… I thought we were going in the direction of the main entrance, where the adapted transport driver was due to pick us up in… SEVEN MINUTES! I backtracked… and tried to open what looked the back door of the main building… but whether it was or it wasn’t, there was a paper sign on the door that said CLOSED/FERMÉ for the holidays. Poor John followed me, and stopped when he realized it was futile and I hurried back to him. This was the point when I realized:

WE’RE LOST!! And our drive is supposed to come in… I glanced at my watch…

…FIVE MINUTES FROM NOW. And I have no idea where we are in this damn dark, snowy, vast expanse of–

I hear a sound. It’s a car engine. I turn around. A blessed car’s headlights are slowly approaching!

I wave down the SUV. John is nearby. The woman behind the wheel sees John, then rolls down her window when she sees me, this waving anxious apparition–

I tell her we’re lost. She is SO nice. An angel. She asks me where we need to go; I tell her the main entrance. I tell her about the adapted transport, they’re going to pick us up at their stop, at 6:30… at the… at the… I can hardly speak, I’m so cold… finally she says she’ll take us there! Her friend? sister? beside her gets out, she manhandles John’s walker (we somehow managed to fold it with her help, it’s so stiff with cold) into their trunk… she helps John into the back seat, I’m invited into the front next to the driver…

We drive around and around – I never would’ve figured this out! – when we arrive at the main door – it has that same CLOSED sign on it, I see it after I climb the stairs to check if the door is locked or not. So then I wonder: Where is our driver now?! It’s 6:30!

I trudge back down to the angel‘s car. I say Wait, I’ll just check where the driver is. With very numb fingers I somehow log on to the transport site. Guess what! Now it says “There is one pick-up before you. Time of your pick-up: ***7:00***!!”

ARGHHHH!! How are John and I going to survive in this freezing cold for half an hour?! (Maybe a tad overdramatic, but…) So I share my angst with the angel.

Where do you live, she asks? She insists I tell her our address. She puts it in her phone. She sees it’s not far! She INSISTS on driving us home!! I get back in.

The angel (with her sister angel) takes us home. To our door. The sister angel pulls John’s walker out of the trunk and helps us unfold its cold limbs into place. As she says goodbye to me I lose my composure (if I still had any left), throw my arms around her, and weep in belated frustration and gratitude.

Gratitude, you can’t imagine. That these absolute strangers could do this. It is so fitting that they – middle-eastern immigrants to be sure, from their accents, maybe Muslim, would help us – a Jew and a Christian – on Christmas night of all nights. Dark and snowy. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I was too farmisht (stressed, befuddled) to get their names!

So just a giant virtual, spiritual THANK YOU from John and me, to our beautiful angels of December 25, 2025.