A chance meeting with Madeline Macdonald — a local woman known as the “maiden of the mountain” — has snowballed into a Christmas miracle, and now she and her husband are embarking on a new adventure in Kelowna’s Glenmore neighbourhood.
And it’s all with the help of one man, whose heart grew three sizes after their meeting five days ago
“When I arrived at what she called her home, it’s this old trailer surrounded by tarps — no running water, no electricity, no plumbing,” said Rory Millikin, who is organizing the help.
“It was just the worst conditions and she was freezing up there with her husband,.”
For the last three years, Macdonald and her husband, Zoltan Husanik, have been homeless, living up near Kettle Valley in the bush with their dogs to avoid living on the streets.
Macdonald would walk four hours into town for food and water from their makeshift home.
After seeing their plight with his own eyes, Millikin reached out to local businesses to help change Macdonald and Husanik’s lives, finding them a new home, a fifth-wheel trailer, with the help of Korey Gaspari from Elite Auto Centre.
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The first thing the couple plans to do in their new home is to take a hot shower. But for the pair, the trailer is so much more than just a place to live.
“I don’t know what we did to deserve this,” Macdonald said through tears.
“This is a whole new start… This is getting back to civilization, back to being human beings.”
“2020 is going to be a whole new year,” said Husanik.
“You can’t appreciate the good years if you don’t have any bad years.”
Their new fifth wheel has been fully paid for, and so has the SUV they will use to get to work every day.
A full dental package has also been donated to Macdonald and Husanik from Swift Dentistry.
For information about how you can help, visit their fundraising page.
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