B.C. woman sends 35 years worth of Christmas gifts to fire department

One woman’s brush with death has inspired an epic giving campaign.

WEST VANCOUVER, B.C. — Keiko Mori was vacationing on one of the more remote B.C. Gulf Islands when she broke her ankle on a hike and fell into a cave.

“I fell about 18 feet,” Keiko says. The ground was surrounded by a bed of sharp rocks. “Luckily there was a rotten log where I landed,” she added.

Although she was grateful the log broke her fall, Keiko realized she couldn’t move.

She spent an hour and a half on the cave floor before being rescued by members of the Thetis Island Volunteer Fire Department.

“It was a horrendous job to come down, put me on a stretcher, and carry me all the way up from the cave,” Keiko says.

And because there’s no hospital on the island, Keiko was transported by boat, to be treated for a broken back.

“Good news is I’m not going to be quadriplegic,” Keiko says.

After enduring surgery and being bedridden for months at home on the mainland, Keiko mailed a Christmas care package to the volunteers who helped her.

“I always thought, without them I wouldn’t be here,” Keiko says.

And seeing as she’s never stopped being grateful for every day — including seeing her son grow up to make her a grandmother — Keiko has never stopped sending the department Christmas gifts.

“I think it’s been 35 years,” Thetis Island Fire Chief Jeannine Caldbeck says. “Every single year. Just before Christmas.”

Jeannine says that even though the original members of the rescue team are long gone, Keiko still sends a box full of hot drinks, sweet treats, and a letter updating the current team on how she spent the past year.

“We feel like she’s part of our family, even though nobody (here) has met her,” Jeannine smiles. “She’s important to us, and we’re thrilled that we’re important to her.”

Keiko plans to keep sending gifts for as long as she can, because she says it’s important to recognize the volunteers who keep helping whenever they can.

“And this year, amazingly, I got this photo from the fire department,” Keiko smiles while holding up the picture showing them holding their gifts while standing in front of the fire truck. “That’s so great! So, I’m going to put it in a frame and put it on the wall.”

A reminder of how the department’s life-saving gift 35 year ago keeps giving, with Keiko living every moment of her life with a gratitude that can’t be contained.