No one knows what were the last sounds Cpl. Nathan Cirillo heard before he died Wednesday morning but hopefully it was not the sound of the gun that killed him. Instead, it would bring some small comfort to a grieving nation if what he heard were the voices of the people who had rushed to his side, seconds after he was shot in front of the National War Memorial.
Perfect strangers who had never met him before encouraged him to keep breathing. They told him his family loved him and was proud of him. In those desperate moments, they would have done anything to keep this brave, uniformed soldier alive. Lawyer Barbara Winters, nurse Margaret Lerhe and the others who ran towards the sounds of gunfire are heroes in our midst.
In Prince George, we are blessed to also have residents as heroic and courageous in their sacrifice. Tomorrow, the Northern Sport Centre at UNBC will host the annual Kidney Walk. The guest of honour is Lori Ridley, a local hero if there ever was one.
Last year, she gave her husband, Shane, one of her kidneys so that he might live.
When Shane's kidneys shut down on him in 2011, he underwent extensive dialysis treatment for months, hooked up to machines that kept him alive by filtering the body's wastes from his blood. He was on a wait list for a cadaver kidney but was told the wait was five to 10 years.
So Lori began looking at what else she could do to help her ailing husband. She soon found that she was not only a personal match for Shane, she was also a donor match.
Donating a kidney to another person is a serious sacrifice made at great personal risk.
For Shane, the moment he woke up in recovery after the transplant, he already felt better. Even though he will be on anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life, his health has been largely restored. His gratitude to Lori is hard to express.
"There really are no words, especially when I'm finally seeing her and I'm feeling great - ready to run a marathon and she's having problems, so there's a little bit of guilt there, for sure," said Shane.
For Lori, meanwhile, it was a long recovery and she only started truly feeling better after about six months. The depth of her gift, however, provided some comfort.
"How could I not do this for Shane?" said Lori. "Especially when we found out we were so well suited. We were a perfect match and so you just do it and now we have our family back."
Love and devotion gave Lori the strength and purpose to make her sacrifice so that her husband could be healthy once more. Lori directly benefits from Shane's restored health but that doesn't take away from the courage she displayed to make her sacrifice.
Love of country and devotion to duty brought Nathan Cirillo to the Canadian Forces and to the National War Memorial on Wednesday morning. To wear the uniform is to believe in Canada and what it represents. Canadians should be so proud of Cirillo and when the Royal Canadian Legion starts distributing poppies next week, they should wear them proudly, in the memory of Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, who was killed Monday in Quebec in a separate attack.
Heroism starts in the heart.
Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks "today, I'm going to be a hero." Instead, it is simply born from a desire to do the right thing. The heroism happens when otherwise ordinary people decide they will keep doing the right thing, even under difficult and dangerous circumstances.
That's how Lori Ridley is a hero and that's how the bystanders who came to Cpl. Cirillo's aid are heroes.
The deaths of Cirillo and Vincent are tragic and we should mourn their loss. In our grief, however, we should not forget to also celebrate our heroes, in and out of uniform, who make our community and our country great.
