When Grace Early set off on the backroads of Alleyn and Cawood last Thursday, her plan was to rendez-vous with her husband, David Early, who was returning home after doing some road work. But things went sideways, literally, when her vehicle slid off the road and, as night descended, she decided to strike out on foot.
A photo retrieved from a trail camera in the dense bush revealed that, as of late Thursday, Grace was on the move. But that was the last and only sign of her. Somewhere along her journey, she got turned around and was too cold to walk any further.
On Friday afternoon, Grace’s daughter, Maggie, alerted the SQ which arrived within 20 minutes, and was later supported by a canine unit and drones in the search and rescue operation. With still no sign of Grace by Saturday morning, Maggie raised the alarm publicly via social media, asking anyone in the area to come and join the search for her mother.
Within a few hours, the community showed up in force. Some 400 volunteer searchers, along with firefighters from multiple local fire departments, congregated at Grace’s home on Cawood Road and were dispatched in small teams, each assigned to cover a specific quadrant of the search grid over the local terrain.
As THE EQUITY’s Sarah Pledge Dickson reports, the roads were almost impassable with all the cars that converged on the search area, and the throng of searchers was described as a sea of orange with almost everyone wearing safety vests.
In a part of the Pontiac where the memory of a man who disappeared just over two years ago without a trace still stings, there was an unspoken determination not to let so tragic a story unfold here again.
And it didn’t. At about 11:30 Saturday morning, Connor Brown, one of the hundreds of people who had fanned out across the rough and rocky fields and forests of Alleyn and Cawood, found Grace alive, conscious, wet and cold from the night’s rain.
In short order, Grace was carried out of the forest on a basket stretcher and transported by ambulance to the hospital in Shawville, where all indications are she will be just fine. It was the spontaneous engagement of people from across the community that gave this drama a happy ending.
It is at times like these when we can see we are blessed to live in a place where the community can be counted on to rally when any of us is in need. It is part of what makes life here great, and a crucial part of our resilience, whatever happens elsewhere in the world, for which we should be truly grateful.
Charles Dickson
