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How a Nanaimo man got a coveted jersey from a stranger

How a Nanaimo man got a coveted jersey from a stranger

Melissa Bowie turned to Reddit for help finding a Quinn Hughes Canucks jersey for her husband. Good Samaritan David Kane stepped in to help

David Kane has crossed an ocean and a continent to play hockey – from his native Scotland to Vancouver – so taking a quick stroll downtown to buy a black Canucks skate sweater from a complete stranger was no big deal. thing to ask.

“I used to roller skate when I was a kid, but I switched to ice when I moved here,” Kane said. “I moved to Canada because I always wanted to play hockey. When the job opportunity presented itself in 2019, I took it… I play four times a week, I love it.

On Tuesday, his love of hockey and all things Canucks led him to answer a call on Reddit to make Christmas a success for Melissa Bowie in Nanaimo, who herself cheers on her beloved hometown, the Edmonton Oilers, but whose husband, Sean, was keen to get a no. Black Canucks .43 sweater with the skateboard logo and a “C” to designate Quinn Hughes’ captaincy.

“I can’t find one anywhere (online)!” Melissa wrote. “I’m looking for 52 (bigs). Maybe there will be a Christmas miracle.

“I saw the post, I was also annoyed that I couldn’t find this jersey online, so I decided to take matters into my own hands,” Kane said.

Employed in computer security, Kane works from home. The Canucks team store was only a 15 minute walk away and the jersey was in stock. And more luck: as a season ticket holder for the past three seasons, Kane also benefited from a small discount.

Finding a courier company with no queues or even open was a little trickier, but Kane succeeded on his third try. Between the next day delivery fee of about $90 and the cost of the sweater, he was short nearly $400 that he couldn’t be sure he would get back.

“I’ve made peace with it,” Kane said. “If it turned out to be a scam, so be it, but it was better that in case it turned out to be a real situation, the person would get their jersey. “

He was also completely fine if Bowie, seeing the staggering delivery costs to get it to Nanaimo overnight, was reluctant to reimburse him. However, she was more than happy to pay him back for everything.

It was supposed to be a Christmas present, but when it arrived on her husband’s birthday, a week before Christmas, and she saw that Hughes’ number was 43 and Sean was turning 43 that day it became a birthday present.

Melissa is a nurse and works in harm reduction, while her husband works in poverty reduction. They see many of those who are left behind. Add to that today’s headlines or any quick scroll of X, and the world can seem like a bleak place.

“Lately I’ve been feeling pretty depressed about humanity,” Sean Bowie said.

It is sometimes difficult to maintain one’s “deep conviction that there is more good and love in the world than the opposite.”

“Then here’s this completely selfless gesture on (Kane’s) part – like he’d never met me or my wife, he completely went out of his way even though he had no way of knowing if my wife could actually afford it.”

Kane didn’t ask for money in advance and was even told not to send money until the jersey arrived.

“A really powerful gesture, that,” Sean said. “There are still kind people in the world who are willing to help a stranger. I hope that soon I will have the opportunity to pay it forward.

Melissa posted a photo of Sean on Reddit in his new Hughes sweater, and he looks grim.

“Honestly, he’s thrilled,” she said.

“I promise, I’m very, very happy,” Sean added. “It’s not by choice, it’s a sad reality of who I am. I’m very capable of smiling, but I’m not able to smile naturally, so I get a lot of funny comments about how enthusiastic I am, which is completely justified.

For his part, Kane, when he saw the photo, he “laughed so much”.

“I was like, ‘Yo, it looks like Quinn Hughes on the bench after he scored – you never know if the guy is happy or sad.’ »

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