Junction hero gets a helping hand
Star readers raised $1,500 to give man who rescued people from a fire a chance to visit his mom
When I last spoke to David Dearman, in mid-October, he was receiving an award for his heroic actions in saving eight people from a fire in the Junction this summer. “I got something to show my mother. This is something I wish she could see,” he said then, holding up the certificate the fire department had given him.
His 72-year-old mother in Dartmouth, N. S., had been ailing recently, suffering a stroke last year and a heart attack this summer, and Dearman, 52, was hoping to get back to see her soon.
But he is a man of extremely limited means — he had been collecting cans and bottles from recycling bins for the deposit money when he saw the fire and intervened — and was going to have trouble scraping together the money.
But thanks to Star readers inspired by his story, he was able to make the trip.
“He brought it home with him,” Jean Dearman says on the phone from the East Coast, of the Certificate of Merit bearing her son’s name. “And I made a photocopy, and now I have it on my wall.
“I’m very proud of him.”
After the article about his award was published, several Star readers reached out to Dearman’s friend Arthur McIsaac (most wishing to remain anonymous), offering help. “One woman paid for his ticket home,” McIsaac says, “Someone offered $500. A few gave $20.” McIsaac says the total support he’s been given is about $1,500.
Dearman has been shy about the recognition and financial support — he didn’t take action in the moment looking for accolades, and initially didn’t even want to talk to the press about the story at all. One of the women he saved, Megan GriffithGreene, was happy to share it and his friend McIsaac thought he deserved some praise.
Still, Dearman is shy. “All I want is if I’m in the same situation, for someone to do the same for me,” he has said.
But he is grateful for the help. “Say thank you to everybody, from me and my mom,” he says. “She was so happy. She didn’t want me to go.”
He describes how reassuring it was to see her on the mend, up and walking around. “Last time I seen her, she wasn’t great. This time she was a bit better. We went out walking and walking.”
He shows me photos he took of the tiny dolls his mother knits for the local children’s hospital back home, of him with her in her living room, of him fishing in the ocean off the pier, a mackerel on the line. “He loves fishing,” his mother tells me.
The trip likely wouldn’t have been possible without the donations. He finds odd jobs doing handiwork and manual labour, but has been unable to secure anything steady for some time. He rides his bike around the neighbourhood every morning before sunrise collecting recyclables.
As we’re talking, he runs into the windowless basement apartment he lives in to bring up some woodworking he’s done — varnished wooden kitty-cat toilet-paper roll holders — to sell, figuring he might see if local shops are interested in taking them on consignment.
He’s going to have to find a new apartment in the next month or two, because, he said, his landlord has asked him to leave. He remains concerned he’ll be unable to find anything remotely affordable in the neighbourhood where he’s lived for decades.
When I ask him, he allows himself to share a bit of a dream. “My idea would be to get out of here and find some kind of work-live studio,” he says, a place he could do his woodworking and try to figure out how to turn it into a business. But that might be tough to do, he immediately qualifies, too expensive to consider. Still, he’s got to find something. McIsaac has set up a Go Fund Me account under the name “Dave Dearman localHeroSaved8 lives” to accept any further donations people might want to send him.
For his part, Dearman is thankful for the unexpected support he’s already received. “Thank everybody for me. I got home.”
His mother, too, extends her gratitude to the Star readers who made it happen. “I’m very proud of him, and very thankful for their generosity,” she says. Edward Keenan writes on city issues ekeenan@thestar.ca. Follow: @thekeenanwire.