Words can’t describe how grateful Alyse McDonald is but she hopes a big hug gets the message across.
The mother of two is desperately seeking a reunion with an off-duty police officer and his wife after they helped save her family from a horrific accident in Delta.
On Wednesday, McDonald was driving down Highway 17 with her two-year-old daughter, Haylee, and seven-year-old son, Jordan, when a couple of ducks suddenly tried to cross the street.
“My instinct was to swerve and I don’t remember much after that,” McDonald said, doing her best to recall the morning’s event.
When she came to, perhaps a few minutes later, McDonald was upside down and her car was filling up with water.
“I was trying to figure out what happened, wondering why I was upside down and I could hear my daughter crying,” she said. “I couldn’t find a light and couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t get my door to open.”
Little did she know, but her car was sitting at a bottom of a ditch that was virtually impossible to spot from the road.
Luckily, Jordan was able to climb up the ditch and flag down a passing vehicle.
That’s when off-duty RCMP homicide investigator Const. Aaron Jabs and his wife rushed in to help.
“I don’t know what I would have done without them,” McDonald said. “When they arrived, I had gotten out of the car and was hysterical and crying. He managed to get my daughter out of the car.”
Miraculously, all three members of the young family survived relatively unscathed, suffering only minor injuries.
McDonald’s one regret was not being able to thank Jabs and his wife, as she was rushed to hospital.
“I’m so grateful they stopped and helped,” said McDonald. “It’s amazing how people can be so helpful. I would love to see them in person and give them a big hug. It was the worst thing I’ve ever gone through and they were there for us.”
McDonald will get her chance.
Jabs is currently out of town, but the RCMP hope to organize a face-to-face meeting between the family and their hero.
Local news from metronews.ca/vancouver
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