LONGUEUIL — Eighty-eight year-old Doug Palmer never saw it coming.
The hockey player is competing in the Lassonde-Tyler tournament, a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s at the Gaétan Boucher arena in Saint-Hubert.
Palmer has been playing with a beaten-up pair of four-year-old gloves.
But, after seeing a Global News story on the tournament on Monday, staff members from Palmer’s seniors’ residence decided they wanted to do something a little special.
Three workers from the Jardins Heritage de Saint-Lambert bought him a new pair of hockey gloves, just two weeks prior to his 89th birthday.
“After seeing his interview on Monday, we saw the holes on his gloves, we decided our superhero cannot be wearing those type of gloves,” said Elizabeth Bellei, Assistant Director of the seniors’ home.
Palmer was pleasantly surprised when the staff members, whom he calls his friends, showed up in the locker room to give him his gift.
“You girls are too kind,” he said as he opened the present and tried on the gloves for the first time.
“My fingers don’t come out to meet me,” Doug said with a smile.
There are 20 teams from across Quebec and Ontario competing in the week-long tournament that ends Friday.
All the players are in their 70s and 80s; Palmer is the oldest on the ice.