‘I don’t want people to forget’
Workplace accident widow takes solace in Hants County’s Steps for Life walk
Jennifer Norman lost her husband Murray Pettigrew in 2008 to a workplace accident. It turned her and her family’s life upside down.
Pettigrew was working at a construction site when a cement truck’s chute shifted while backing up, hitting a wall that then toppled onto Pettigrew.
While the initial shock of the loss is over, for Norman, she still feels the affects of that tragic day.
“I don’t want people to forget,” Norman said at her home in Garlands Crossing. “Murray grew up in this community. He was well-known and I don’t want people to forget.”
Norman says she leans on friends and family a lot for support. She’s gone to counselling for help.
She started participating in the Steps For Life walk six year ago. Initially, it was held in Halifax, but when one began in Hants County at Smileys Provincial Park, she started attending that one ever since.
“It has been hard, there were a couple of years after the accident that we were in limbo,” she said. “I’m not from the area and I didn’t know if I was going to stay here or move back home.”
Norman decided to move home for a short time while renting out her place in Hants County to figure things out, but eventually came back to the community.
Hard on the children
“It certainly has affected the children, that’s for sure, in ways people wouldn’t think about,” she said. “The two youngest, they don’t know what it’s like to have a father.”
Her youngest child was just two weeks old when Pettigrew died. He would make up stories at school about things he did with his dad.
“My son made a lot of stuff up, just to keep up with his buddies I guess,” she said. “They’re only seven and six years old, so they don’t quite grasp it yet, but I guess this is normal for them.”
Steps For Life brings victims, family members and friends of people who have been in workplace accidents together to raise money for counselling services and increase awareness for workplace safety.
“It helps people in the community realize that these accidents do happen,” Norman said. “It’s important not to forget the people who have been hurt and killed on the job.”
“And for my children, it gives them more of an awareness of what happened as they get older.”
The family made a memorial poster of Pettigrew for the walks. Norman says her kids always look forward to seeing it.
“In a way, participating in the walk does kind of help. I guess you feel like you’re working for a cause and that it wasn’t in vain,” she said. “You hope regulations and safety issues are being looked after by keeping the awareness there.” It’s also hard to do, she says. “It’s bittersweet as well, we usually do it the first week of May and his birthday is right around that time,” she said. “It’s kind of a hard time. It’s a good day, but it’s a tough day.” Pettigrew was just 34 when he died. Norman says the community has react- ed positively to the new walk in Hants County since it started a few years ago.
“I know a few people who do the walks. I see them every year, but you know everybody there is affected somehow in the same way you are,” she said. “People don’t really understand what you’re going through until it happens to them.”
Steps for Life
The fifth annual Windsor/West Hants Steps for Life walk is taking place on May 3.
Steps For Life is the main fundraising event for the Association for Workplace Tragedy Family Support — Threads of Life.
Funds raised from Steps of Life go to family support programs and services, including one-on-one peer support, training to become an injury prevention speaker and more.
Kevin Bonnis is a regional development co-ordinator for Threads of Life.
He said the Steps for Life walk is crucial to the organization’s operation.
“You go through the grief process when you lose somebody — could be a husband or child — and you realize that it is a new life,” Bonnis said. “Our counsellors can help people come to terms with that.”
Bonnis said the goal of the walks is a 50/50 split between awareness and fundraising.
“I wouldn’t go as far as saying we’re lobbying the government. We work with the provincial Workers Compensation Boards,” he said.
The first Steps For Life was held in 2004 and its been growing across the country ever since, with one in every province.
Counselling topics range from coping with grief, to dealing with stress, financial advice and more.
Some of the funds raised go towards family forums, which take place across the country. These forums hold workshops and skill development events. A family forum is held at Oak Island every year.
Money raised does directly to victims.
“We lose two to three workers every day in Canada. It’s definitely a current issue,” Bonnis said. “The number (of victims) tends to maintain over the years; there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.”
Barbara Beck is the volunteer co-chair of the Windsor-West Hants Steps for Life Committee. She said helping to promote the walk allows her to put a face to workplace tragedy.
“To let survivors know that they do not walk alone in their struggle with grief caused by workplace injury or fatality,” she said. “And to honour my husband Ronnie’s memory.”
The walk in Hants County has raised about $38,000 over the last four years, Beck said. The walks raised more than $652,000 across the country last year.
“Workplace health and safety is everyone’s responsibility,” she said. “We all find ourselves in situations that at times seem hopeless and we all have the choice to do something or take action.”
The issue, she says, should always be top of mind.
“Workplace health and safety must always be in the forefront,” she added. “We walk to make change one step at a time.”
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