Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 12, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A3 email:ryan@kenscarpets.ca | www.kenscarpets.ca • AREA RUGS • CARPETS • HARDWOODS • LAMINATE • CERAMICS • VINYL & WINDOW COVERINGS • LUXURY VINYL PLANK Ken’s Carpets & URBAN HOMESTYLE CENTRE Flooring Winnipeg since 1965 730 Archibald 233-0697 Click Stone Core Plank (with attached pad) $1.99 sqft Winnipeg Clinic Radiant Optical Centre Steven L. Mintz, CD, B.Sc., O.D. Optometrist benoitoptical@shaw.ca Eye Exams Monday to Friday TELEPHONE (204) 957-0392 FAX (204) 957-3212 425 St. Mary Avenue Winnipeg, MB R3C 0N2 COVID-19 PANDEMIC ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON: 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A3 SATURDAY MARCH 12, 2022 A look at lives of four Manitobans lost to COVID-19 over past 12 months FACES OF THE PANDEMIC T HEY are people, not statistics.Mary Cartlidge, Clarke Gehman, Bernice Oleschuk and Luigi D’Abramo had family who loved them. They had more years ahead of them, but were taken too soon. They contracted COVID-19, and died because of it. Manitoba is on the cusp of a grim anniversary. Today, March 12, marks the second anniversary of the first positive case of COVID-19 being detected in Man- itoba. March 27 marks the second anniversary of the first death of a Manitoban from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Her name was Margaret Sader. Like most of the victims of COVID-19, we know little about Sad- er. She was a woman in her 60s who worked at a dental supplies clinic. Almost two years after Sader’s death, a family member said they didn’t want to comment for this story. Last year, the Free Press marked the first anniversary of the detection of the virus in the province by look- ing at the lives of people lost to the pandemic. At the time, 911 Manito- bans had fallen victim to COVID-19, most during the second wave from October 2020 to January 2021. In the second year, nearly 800 peo- ple had joined them. That’s 1,710 Manitobans whose lives were cut short. (Manitoba’s 123 deaths per 100,000 people is the second-highest per capita rate in the country, behind only Quebec, at 164.). Here are four lives we lost in the last year. We know how they died, but this is how they lived. KEVIN ROLLASON Mary Cartlidge IT wasn’t a strike or a spare that brought love to Mary Cartlidge — it was the pins themselves. Cartlidge, who was 91 when she died of COVID-19 complications Feb. 11, was working as a pin girl at a bowling alley in Portage la Prairie, replacing knocked-over pins by hand, when she met future husband Al. “It was more than pin money she got,” joked Thora Cartlidge, one of her three daughters. “He noticed my mother, who was two lanes over. Her dog, Stubby, had just died and she was crying. Well, one thing led to another and in a couple of weeks they were dating. A year later, they were engaged and two years later, they were married.” Cartlidge turned 19 nine days after their wedding. The couple were mar- ried 69 years until Al died in 2018. “It was that glance across the bowling lane which tied a knot around them,” Thora said. “They were insepa- rable through their lives.” Cartlidge was born in Portage la Prairie on Oct. 19, 1930, to a couple who came to Canada from Denmark. One of four girls, she was active in track and field during school. While she never owned a horse herself, she developed a life-long love of them, riding and showing them at regional fairs. “Anytime she had an opportunity to ride, she would, whether in Cuba on vacation or in Australia where my dad did a teacher exchange. The horse connection was always an important one for her,” Thora said. Al worked as administrator of the Manitoba Home for Boys (now Agassiz Youth Centre), later at the Selkirk Men- tal Health Centre and then in teaching; Cartlidge worked as a teacher’s aide while volunteering for numerous orga- nizations. She also began looking after chil- dren. “They fostered kids in need or in distress or in trouble, at a time when service agencies were just forming,” Thora said. “(Along) with one teacher, almost every year she took a group of restless kids, authorized by the par- ents, to go camping. They went as far as Jasper (Alta.). With no formal train- ing, she was active in influencing kids’ thinking of what’s valuable in life.” And those children remembered her. “Several years later, at her personal care home, many of the staff members remembered my mom on the play- ground, as playground staff or on one of the camping trips,” Thora said. “She had an inclination to step up and give a hand. She would say, ‘Stay still too long and your feet will stay in cement.’” Her care home was able to keep COVID-19 at bay until December, when the Omicron variant came to Manitoba. Cartlidge became infected in early January. “She had been looking forward to restrictions being lifted this summer, so she could be wheeled down to the library, to my sister’s place, and… the restaurant at the golf course,” Thora said. “She tested negative at the end of the first week of February, but the fa- tigue and after-effects of COVID took her down. It shortened her life.” Living, learning, losing: Manitobans speak on the second anniversary of COVID-19’s arrival IT’S been two years since health officials identified the first case of COVID-19 in the province. Since then, Manitobans have endured illness, sorrow, isolation, shutdowns, restrictions, man- dates, fear, anger and, above all, uncertainty. They’ve also, in some cases, been able to find hope, unexpected happiness and a renewed faith in humanity. We asked some of them how the pandemic has changed them — for better or worse. NDP Leader Wab Kinew “I’ve always appreciated my family, but the pandemic and watching the impact on my mom, as a senior; my wife, who works in health care; my kids, who are going to school, remote learning and sacrificed sports, really forced me to ap- preciate everything that they sacrificed. And to recognize how much we need to make it up to people like them, health- care folks, seniors and young people. It really put that into perspective and really informs my thoughts on where we need to take the province in the future.” Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont “On a personal level, it’s been abso- lutely harrowing. There was a point be- tween November and December where I lost a number of people. I had a friend who took his own life, then (Thompson MLA) Danielle Adams died. A friend of mine died of COVID on Christmas Day. It’s been hard.” David Pensato, executive director of the Exchange BIZ “It has given me a real appreciation for social connections and for the vibrancy that we used to take for granted, in terms of bumping into people on the street and spending time together in different settings. It’s given me a greater appreciation for that.” CODY SELLAR / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS David Pensato ● CONTINUED ON A4 DAVID JACKSON / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Thora Cartlidge holds a photo of her late mother, Mary Cartlidge, who died of COVID-19 complications on Feb. 11 at the age of 91. ● CONTINUED ON A4 A_03_Mar-12-22_FP_01.indd 3 2022-03-11 8:46 PM ;