Hospital reunion, 52 years later.
When Gordon Cameron last saw Terri Ward, she was only a few minutes old, a crying baby being wheeled into the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
Nearly 52 years later, Cameron saw her again, this time in a Moncton, N.B. hospital room following a heart scare during the funerals of three Mounties. This time it was Ward, now an intensive care nurse, who saw Cameron being wheeled in.
There’s a reason for everything, Ward told him.
“I’ve been feeling better ever since Terri took over and the hospital got me,” Cameron said Friday night, shortly after returning to Edmonton.
Cameron had approached the Journal two years ago with an unusual request. On June 26, 1962, he was a young Edmonton constable who inadvertently helped deliver a baby in the back seat of a car. All these years later, he wanted to give the baby a birthday card but didn’t know how. The only notes he jotted down that night — Glen Ward, 25, 13009 — 102nd St., LC 0986 — were badly out of date.
Vivid memories about what happened that night, when he pulled over a speeding 1956 Ford Meteor, would keep coming back to Cameron.
“My wife’s having a baby in the back seat,” the driver had blurted, jumping out and sprinting away toward the hospital.
Cameron was suddenly witnessing the final stages of labour. In the blur that followed, he didn’t actually deliver the baby. But he recalled the young mom telling him “it’s coming” and instructing him to hand over the newborn. Later on, Cameron watched hospital staff whisk woman and child away. Then he went back on duty.
Cameron often wondered what happened to the baby. But finding someone 50 years later isn’t as easy as it sounds. The Journal archives had no story or birth notice. The 1962 Henderson’s Directory had a C. Glen Ward with a wife named Pauline and a job with the Royal Canadian Air Force. That led to a 2009 obituary online, which listed a Pauline and Glenn Ward of Sackville, N.B. When Pauline Ward picked up the phone, she asked if it was a scam.
In the past two years, Cameron and the Wards have kept in touch by phone and email. They exchanged pictures and Christmas greetings. Cameron ordered Terri a birthday cake and sent candles, a model police car and basinette as decorations.
After three Mounties were shot by a gunman on June 4, Cameron felt compelled to join the 2,700 police officers attending their funeral. He told the Wards he’d be in town for a couple of days. Cameron wasn’t sure he’d get to see them, didn’t want to impose on short notice, but gave them his flight time. They met at the airport and gave him a ride into town. After all this time, they finally had a chance to say a quick hello.
On Tuesday morning, Cameron marched as planned, but didn’t realize it would be 1.3 kilometres. There was a long wait to get into the Moncton Coliseum, and once inside, he stood on his feet for nearly another hour.
By the time he could sit down, nearly four hours had passed. Cameron has arrhythmia and a friend noticed he had dropped his camera. They thought he was having a heart attack. An ambulance was called and the Wards rushed to the hospital, where Terri watched him come in. They stayed with him every day, joined by Cameron’s son Kerry, who flew into town.
Cameron hadn’t had a heart attack, but was just dehydrated and needed his medications adjusted. The hospitalization extended the visit and gave the two families a chance to catch up and reminisce about the old days in Edmonton. Terri took days off from work. They went down to Sackville, where Glenn and Pauline live.
The Wards were tickled to have the extra time with their new friend, met at an awkward scene half a century ago. “Terri was very pleased with meeting him, and he’s pleased with meeting her,” Glenn said. “I could say it closes the book.”