2,000 kilometre ambulance ride brings dying Sask. man home
While Vancouver Island, B.C. might have been Jim Jeffery’s address for decades, it was never really home. That’s why his family arranged one last journey for him back to Saskatchewan where he was born – almost 2,000 kilometres by ambulance.
The plan developed as 95-year-old Jim’s health waned. He hadn’t drank much water and hadn’t eaten in 17 days.
His daughter, Denise Jeffery, says she was on speakerphone with her sister, Cheryle Watson, who was at their father’s care home in Victoria. Their father wasn’t doing well when she asked if he wanted to return to the family homestead southeast of Moose Jaw.
“I don’t hear anything except my sister crying and I said, ‘What’s going on?’” Denise said. “She said, ‘He’s got a big smile on his face and he’s squeezing my hand.’”