How a weekly phone call turned into a love story for 2 N.B. seniors
CBC
When you drive up to Brenda Trafford's home in Murray Corner, in southeastern New Brunswick, you can see why she'd never want to leave.
It is a unique 12-sided, dodecagon house, with windows on all sides, overlooking the Northumberland Strait and the Confederation Bridge.
It's a special place she shared with her husband, Tom, until he passed away nearly 12 years ago.
Trafford has kept herself busy with friends and family and creating crafts and clothing she sells at a local market.
But when she heard about the Nursing Homes Without Walls program, which matches volunteers with seniors in their communities, she signed up immediately.
The volunteers run errands, drive seniors to appointments and do regular check-ins.
Trafford said knowing she would receive a phone call every Wednesday was "reassuring" and just what she needed.
"Somebody knows where I am and how I am," she said.
Her initial match in the program "apparently became ill. So I received a call on a Monday, and it was a male voice, and my musical mind went, 'Oh — that's an interesting sounding voice.'"
The voice at the other end was David Steele. He had recently lost his wife and decided he wanted to spend some of his time volunteering.
"I got up one morning and realized that I owed New Brunswick and Nova Scotia — from which I received a pretty decent life — that maybe it was payback time and coincidentally, there was an ad on the radio looking for volunteers."
Steele signed up to make weekly phone calls to fellow seniors who needed support.
"I had my call list ... the members were divided up into groups of seven or eight people, and my dear Brenda was one of those people," he said.
"So I started off and she had a very nice phone voice too, which kind of impressed me."
Like much of Canada, the local news landscape in northern Ontario is undergoing significant change.
Amid the patriotic chest-thumping and sincere efforts of Canadians to do right by their country in the face of the on-again, off-again U.S. tariffs, the humble little Maple Leaf has been working overtime.
New Brunswick's most powerful lever in Canada's trade war with the United States is found mostly along the province's back roads, cutting through forests and across fields rarely seen by most residents.
Measles is making a comeback in Quebec. From December to March, at least 31 cases were reported and experts point to one cause — declining vaccination rates.
Manitoba's cancer authority has stopped using an infusion pump line — made by a company whose IV pumps have been the subject of recalls — over concerns about leakage and the increased risk of potentially hazardous chemotherapy drug spills, according to a memo obtained by CBC News.
Burnout is a very real concern these days at Fire Station #1 in downtown Saskatoon.
The man charged in a double homicide in Edmonton's Chinatown is in court this week, representing himself in a separate charge of breaking and entering.
With the 2025 wildfire season looming, Jamie Viera is fighting for any aid that will help communities in B.C.'s Interior build resiliency and volunteer strength on the fire line.
The provincial Crown has withdrawn all charges against Stelco, after two workers suffered severe burns they later died from.
June Muir had just returned from a trip to New York to help a friend move when the warnings started turning up in the media: If you've been out of the country, stay home.
Stunning views of the Rocky Mountains make it easy to miss the county line as you drive along Highway 22, northwest of Calgary.
People who are intoxicated by alcohol or drugs in Thunder Bay, Ont., now have access to a space where they can rest and recover without judgment.
Region of Waterloo and union disagree on whether negotiations have resumed as strike enters 2nd week
As the strike by outdoor workers enters week two, neither the Region of Waterloo nor the union can agree on whether negotiations have resumed.