Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 12, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A7 A7SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 2022 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I COVID-19 PANDEMIC Women’s Fashion and Footwear Boutique SIZES 0-14 • SELECTION & SERVICE www.girlcandyshop.com 918 Grosvenor Ave. • 204.975.4605 TUES-FRI 10-6, SAT 10-5 NEW DELIVERIES ANNUAL PUBLIC MEETING The Directors and Management of Winnipeg Airports Authority Inc. (WAA) welcome members of the community to join us for our Annual Public Meeting. The presentation will include highlights of the operation and maintenance of Winnipeg Richardson International Airport, as well as an overview of the 2021 consolidated financial statements for WAA. Thursday, April 28, 2022 at 9:00am Winnipeg Richardson International Airport 1970 Wellington Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba WAA.CA Beautiful Style. Beautiful Home. MARCH MADNESS SALE UP TO 70% OFF Does not apply to previous purchases. See store for details. Ends March 31, 2022. 645 Century Street | 204.783.4000 bellamodahome.com CONTACT osteoporosis.ca/risk manitoba@osteoporosis.ca 204.772.3498 OSTEOPOROSIS CAN STRIKE AT ANY AGE AND AFFECTS BOTH WOMEN AND MEN DO YOU KNOW YOUR RISK? Debbie Patterson, founding artistic director of Sick + Twisted Theatre “Last night I cried in a grocery store. Because I have an autoimmune condi- tion, my partner has been doing all the shopping for us. But right now, I’m in another city by myself working, so I had to shop for myself. I had been watching the news seeing people from Ukraine talking about being afraid to go out to get groceries, hoping that what they have will be enough to last until it’s safe. I was wandering the aisles of a grocery store with so much wonderful food, feeling so grateful. I hope I never take that for granted again.” Louis Lévesque-Côté, co-owner of Café Postal “I’m definitely grumpier than I was two years ago. I learned how you can surprise yourself in realizing how adaptable you are when faced with a new situation.” Kevin Ruganzu “I’m new here in Canada. I came here (from Congo) when the pandemic was a little bit worse. But it affects me a lot because I had to wait a semester to study school, so it puts me behind.” Loren Remillard, Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president and CEO “The past two years have surpris- ingly forced me to break out of my daily routine and embrace experiences I likely would not have done so before COVID, such as winter hiking. This was driven, in large part, by the other change in me — a greater awareness of my own mental health and its vulnerabilities.” Kyle Becker “It has really sucked. I barely get to see my mom anymore, my siblings. I can’t see my friends as much. Everyone seems pissed off all the time.” — compiled by Free Press staff fpcity@freepress.mb.ca CODY SELLAR / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Kevin Ruganzu ● ● ● MARGARET Ward had a sore throat, a cough and felt tired on Dec. 13, 2020. She didn’t feel much like eating any- thing, either. Many of the now-83-year-old’s neighbours at the Convalescent Home of Winnipeg were experiencing sim- ilar symptoms as COVID-19 spread through the Fort Rouge facility. Just three of the 84-bed home’s residents managed to somehow stay out of the virus’s path. Ward lost nine friends during the outbreak. It wasn’t until Jan. 27, 2021, eight days after residents received their first vaccinations, that the dining room opened again. “It may seem silly, but it was so exciting to see everyone again,” Ward says. “We shook hands with each other, even though we shouldn’t have. “We wished each other Merry Christmas. We got to look outside our courtyard. Just seeing everyone again and seeing something different was wonderful.” She hasn’t had to deal with any long- term effects. “I think I am about 75 per cent from where I was two years ago, before COVID started,” she says. “I do feel well. I have a lovely room, big window (and) my family is well. I am happy.” But Ward has concerns about what might follow as the province removes public-health restrictions. “I have very mixed feelings about our doors reopening more fully now,” she says. “I am anxious about more people coming in and visiting on our floors (and) in our rooms. “No one wants to go through another outbreak.” ● ● ● MORDEN Mayor Brandon Burley got COVID in November 2020, during the second wave of the pandemic, along with his wife and their four children. “For anyone who says ‘COVID is just a cold’ I can confirm it’s not, in no way whatsoever,” he posted on social media at the time. “Tests came back positive in our house and I feel like I’m dead or dying 23 hours a day. Take this serious folks!” Burley, 40, later said it took more than a month before he could climb a flight of starts without getting winded and stopping to catch his breath. He also couldn’t run a block without hav- ing to stop. It took almost a year to get back a proper sense of smell and taste. “A lot of food smelled like sewage,” he says. “There are sewage lagoons northwest of the city and the wind can blow the smell in and it was making me hungry — that’s not what you want. “It’s funny how the brain acclimatiz- es. At first I would gag and dry heave, but at the end it was just food. You’d think I would have lost weight, but I didn’t.” Although the kids are fine, and suffer no lingering effects of con- tracting the virus, Burley says his wife is still dealing with respiratory problems. Burley was elected as mayor of the town of 8,700 in the fall of 2018. Morden is surrounded by the RM of Stanley in southern Manitoba, where vaccine uptake has consistently remained the province’s lowest and opposition to public-health orders has remained high. The area — the town of Winkler is 16 kilometres east of Morden — has dealt with angry protests opposing vaccine and mask mandates, which have left deep divisions among residents. It helps to have a sense of humour, though. Burley can laugh about some of the things that happened during his year with altered taste and smell. “A protester yelled at me to ‘eat s--t’ but that was sort of what I was going through,” he says. kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca TWO YEARS LATER ● FROM A6 MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Margaret Ward, survived a COVID-19 infection during the second wave in December 2020, in an outbreak at the Convalescent Home of Winnipeg. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Morden Mayor Brandon Burley, who got COVID in November 2020, says it took almost a year to get his sense of smell and taste back, while his wife is still dealing with respiratory problems. A_07_Mar-12-22_FP_01.indd 7 2022-03-11 9:04 PM ;