Seniors receive cheer from complete strangers

Greeting cards brighten the day 6,000 Ottawa seniors receive greetings from people they've never met. CTV's Peter Szperling reports.

OTTAWA — Everyone loves getting a card in the mail, but what if it came from a complete stranger?

Seniors all throughout Ottawa have been receiving well wishes this holiday season and it’s brightened up their days.

Bob Ford lives in at the Stirling Park Retirement Community. Out of the blue, he received a greeting card with a letter.

“I didn’t realize the significance of it, and how much I enjoyed it,” he tells CTV News Ottawa.

The card came from a complete stranger and was delivered by the staff at the retirement community.

“Wishing us well during the pandemic, and a bit about her family; and that they were living through this also,” Ford says.

Ford says it was nice to hear from someone and now, he and the stranger are no longer strangers, but pen pals.

“We went back and forth a few times, and I sent her some flowers,” Ford says.

Ford is one of nearly six thousand seniors in Ottawa to get a card since April.

“It’s very special,” says Elizabeth Morrow, also a resident of the Sterling Park Retirement Community. “We don’t know from one day to the next what’s going to be, so it’s nice to receive a message.”

Nissa Coghlan-Kerr is the activity manager at Stirling Park and helped deliver the cards.

“It’s been a long year; it’s been a tough year,” she says.

Coghlan-Kerr says the caring goes a long way.

“There was a lot of heart put through the cards, to say, 'I wish I could be there to hold your hand or give you a hug but, just know that I care about you and that I’m thinking about you and that I wish you well',” she says.

The cards come from all over. They’re collected and distributed by Debbie Abfalter. She owns a business called Seniors Solution and helps seniors by taking them to appointments, through home care, and by assisting in any way she can. During the first wave of the pandemic, she saw a need.

“A lot of people were now in their rooms, locked in their rooms, eating in their rooms; they’re not tech-savvy, they’re not on Facebook. A lot of them didn’t have families, so that’s why we created it,” Abfalter says.

The giving didn’t stop at cards, says Abfalter.

“We collected poinsettias, letters, cards, pictures, paintings, and painted rocks. Lots of painted rocks.”

The project has been going strong and means even more at Christmas.

“It’s just that somebody cares, and they have a friend,” says Abfalter.

If you’d like to send a card, you can get in touch with Debbie and ‘Cards etc for Seniors in Isolation,’ through her e-mail [e-mail] or the project’s Facebook group.