Reader's Digest Canada - 012.2020

DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

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reader’s digest

he was pinned in the darkness by the From his home in the Rome sub-
weight of beams and walls, ice and urbs, Giampaolo Matrone watched
earth. What happened? Where am I? the weather with growing concern. He
and his wife, Valentina Cicioni, had
Lying on his stomach, he surveyed planned an overnight getaway to the
what he could. His left leg had been hotel, but now he wondered whether
twisted and thrust forward so that his they should go. Matrone phoned the
foot rested near his cheek. He could Rigopiano. Its owner, Roberto Del
move his left arm, but his right arm Rosso, said Matrone simply needed
and leg were crushed beneath some- chains on his tires. “Tranquillo,” Del
thing enormous. He realized with hor- Rosso said. “It won’t be a problem.”
ror that his chin rested on the knee of
a corpse. He tried to still the panic, to What Del Rosso kept to himself was
recall the moments before everything that things were growing bleak. Food
went dark. and supplies at his hotel were running
low, and with only a single snowplow,
He had been speaking to his wife. officials in town were struggling to
They were standing in a doorway. And keep the road open. But Matrone and
then, the whistling gust of wind; the Cicioni didn’t know that. They decided
sense of tumbling through space; the to make the trip. By the time they neared
sounds of coughing, moaning; and the resort six hours later, they were
the horrifying silence that followed. battling a total whiteout. When they
Had it been an earthquake? He called finally reached the hotel, they were
to his wife but heard no answer. cold and exhausted. They checked into
their room and then headed outside to
“Giampaolo? Giampaolo?” a woman the thermal pool, trying to forget their
cried. She was close, and she was long day in the car. The wind and the
trapped here, too. “Are you alive?” thick, wet snow were unrelenting.
Soon they retreated indoors and got
“I’m alive!” he shouted. “I’m alive.” dressed for dinner.

nestled on the flanks of Italy’s Apen- The conversation there was trou-
nine Mountains, about 160 kilometres bling. “I’m more scared than you,” a
northeast of Rome, the Hotel Rigopi- waiter confided to them. “I’ve been
ano had never been easy to reach. But stuck here for six days.”
its isolation only added to its appeal,
attracting Italian pop stars and celeb- as the hotel guests awoke on Wednes-
rities like George Clooney. day, January 18, they discovered that
their predicament had worsened over-
In January 2017, snow began to fall night. The cars in the lot were invisible.
across the Apennines. For days it came
down, and the enormous drifts ringing
the Rigopiano grew taller by the hour.

100 december 2020

Hotel Rigopiano
before the avalanche.

ALESSIO FERREO The phone and power lines were With a dozen vehicles freed, guests
down. Cellular coverage, always spotty set off down the driveway. But when
on the mountain, had gotten worse. they reached the main road, the path
was blocked by a two-metre-high wall
Employees in the kitchen were try- of snow. Matrone climbed out of his
ing hard to manage what was left of the car and scaled the drift. There was no
provisions. For breakfast, they put out road, just a glistening expanse of pow-
a few microwaved croissants, some der. He turned and yelled down to his
marmalade and Nutella. wife, “We’re trapped!” They made their
way back to the resort.
After breakfast, Matrone and Cicioni
went to the Jacuzzi. Matrone sank As the light outside faded, the 40
beneath the surface. Suddenly, the guests and workers searched for dis-
hotel began to wobble. The windows traction. Adriana Vranceanu and her
rattled, and the water in the tub son huddled over a checkerboard in
sloshed over the edges. a playroom on the ground floor. She
needed aspirin and had sent her hus-
An earthquake with a magnitude of band, Giampiero Parete, to find some
5.7 had struck the mountain. Matrone in their car. Meanwhile, their daughter
had had enough. “Let’s get out of here,” shot pool with two other children
he told his wife, dressing quickly. They down the corridor in the billiard hall.
headed to the parking lot, where others
were excavating their cars. Fifteen min- A handful of guests sat in white
utes after the first earthquake, another upholstered armchairs and sofas.
tremor hit, this one measuring 5.6.

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reader’s digest

Matrone paced the reception area, foundation, collapsed it into a pile of
anxiously discussing options with his rubble, and sent debris flying more
wife. Del Rosso, the owner, was just than 90 metres away. When the tossing
around the corner, in the hotel’s library and tumbling came to a stop, those
nook. Half a dozen of his employees caught inside were left buried in the
milled about in the kitchen. icy heap of rock and ruin. All was now
still; everything had gone dark.
This was when the snow on the
mountain began to slide. fabio salzetta, the resort’s caretaker,
had been working in the tiny boiler hut
They heard the avalanche before about 27 metres from the main build-
they saw it. As the wall of snow and ice ing when he noticed an eerie silence.
tumbled downward, it compressed the He tried to throw open the door, but it
air into a terrible low whistle. The wouldn’t budge. The little outbuilding
avalanche gathered speed and size, was sealed in snow. So he pried away
grabbing rocks and trees and any- the window frame and wriggled out-
thing else in its way as it roared down side. Standing on an empty snowfield,
the mountain. he gazed at a trail of sheer destruc-
tion—it was as if a giant rake had been
WHEN THE dragged down the mountain, toppling
RESCUERS FINALLY beech trees, crushing cars, chewing up
ARRIVED, THERE WAS everything in its path.
NO MOVEMENT, NO
Salzetta felt numb. Where was the
HUMAN SOUNDS. hotel?

With the force of 4,000 fully loaded Then he saw the tip of the Rigopia-
Mack trucks, the snow slammed into no’s roof poking out of a pyramid of
the hotel at 100 kilometres per hour. ice-topped rubble. The entire building
Walls buckled. The avalanche thun- had been bulldozed down the hill.
dered through the kitchen, killing the
workers there. It tore into the alcove Salzetta noticed a figure stumbling
where Del Rosso was, then raced across the snow: Giampiero Parete.
across the two rooms where guests sat Moments before the avalanche had
sipping hot drinks. struck, he’d gone to get aspirin for his
wife from their car. Parete appeared
The snow—and the weight of every- disoriented, distraught. “My family is
thing it had brought down the moun- inside the hotel,” he wailed.
tain with it—ripped the hotel from its
The two climbed inside Parete’s car.
Finding a cell signal with Parete’s
phone seemed to take forever. In fact,

102 december 2020

TVSEI it took two hours before they finally Northern Italy had seen an unusual
spoke with the chief of the region’s amount of snow that January from more
alpine rescue team, Antonio Crocetta. than a week’s worth of unrelenting
storms. A series of four earthquakes sent
“We’re coming,” Crocetta promised. roughly 132,000 tons of snow hurtling
“How long will it take?” asked Parete. down the mountain at 100 kilometres per
“Five or six hours.” hour. The avalanche spun and dragged the
Darkness had set in, and Parete and Rigopiano 10 metres before burying it.
Salzetta sat afraid inside the car, the
motor running, the heat now blasting. “About 40,” Salzetta replied.
From his base in the hillside village “Can you give us an idea of where
of Penne, Crocetta alerted the military they might be?”
police and mobilized his unit: 14 men Salzetta offered his best guesses. As
trained in rescue operations, including rescuers wrapped Parete in a thermal
a surgeon, an anaesthetist, a dog han- blanket and took him down the moun-
dler, a search dog and two veteran tain on a stretcher, other members of
alpine guides. Reaching the resort the alpine team began probing with
would mean trekking 10 kilometres up tools used to poke through snow to
the mountain. locate bodies. They found the first one
When the rescuers finally arrived, after about an hour, buried under one
eight hours after Parete had talked to and a half metres of snow. It was Gabri-
Crocetta, there was no movement any- ele D’Angelo, one of Salzetta’s col-
where—no human sound, just rubble. leagues. The maître d’ of the hotel’s
They did spot two headlights: Salzetta restaurant was found buried nearby.
and Parete in the car. Later, Del Rosso’s body would be dis-
“How many people are in the hotel?” covered beneath the rubble that
a team member asked. crushed him as his hotel disintegrated.

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More than 30
hours after the
search began,
rescuers heard
a woman calling

for help.

reader’s digest

(TOP) ALESSANDRO DI MEO/EPA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; (BOTTOM) AP/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK while the alpine team probed for the next morning, Thursday, more res-
corpses, Giampaolo Matrone lay in a cuers arrived, including a team of fire-
coffin-sized pocket of air beneath fighters and canine trainer Lorenzo
nine metres of snow, ice and rubble. Botti. Looking at the remains of the
He could hear nothing of what was hotel, Botti made a quick assessment:
happening at the surface. Shock had no chance of survivors.
set in, and he felt no pain, no hunger,
no cold. Police technicians set up an antenna
that allowed them to home in on bur-
He began to fade in and out of con- ied cellphones. Wherever there were
sciousness. Surreal imagery drifted phones, there would be people—or,
through his mind. At one point, he was more likely, bodies.
walking alongside his wife toward the
bakery his family operated, taking note Botti turned his attention to the
of every shop, every street corner, each nine-metre mound, buried under
crack in the pavement. snow, that constituted the main
structure of the hotel. After studying
THE WRECKAGE a crude floor plan drawn by Salzetta,
WAS UNSTABLE. Botti and his men mounted the
THE RESCUERS OR wreckage, shovelled through four
A TREMOR COULD metres of snow, and, when they found
BRING IT ALL DOWN. the top of the building, began sawing
into the roof.
His thoughts were strange and richly
detailed. He imagined rescuers swoop- Rescuers carefully lowered them-
ing in on magic carpets, dressed like selves through the apertures they’d
Aladdin in The Arabian Nights. In cut. Lights fastened to their helmets
another vision, his best friend, a body- illuminated the twisted debris. The
builder, materialized on the mountain, space was so cramped, the rescuers
lifting tons of concrete and setting had to crawl on their bellies. For hours
Matrone free. they called out for survivors.

Each time Matrone awoke, he con- Finally, at 11 a.m. on Friday, more
fronted anew the terrible reality: he than 30 hours after the search began,
was buried alive. Despair washed over they heard something astonishing: a
him. He asked himself, Who is going to woman crying for help.
save us?
“Who are you?” one of the rescuers
screamed back.

“I am Adriana.”
“How many are you?”
“I’m in a room with my son,” she said.
“My daughter’s inside, in the next room.”

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reader’s digest

A month after the disaster, Matrone was quickly toward the nearby billiard ALESSANDRO FALCO
still recovering in a Rome hospital. room, cut a small hole in the roof,
focused a searchlight, and lowered
Adriana Vranceanu—whose hus- a video probe. Gathered around a
band had gone to fetch her aspirin screen, the team saw two small
from their car before the avalanche kids emerge from behind a sofa,
and then frantically phoned for help— including Adriana’s daughter,
was bleeding from a head wound drawn by the light from the hole in
when firefighters found her and her the roof. Somehow, the entire room
son squeezed together in a crawl appeared intact.
space. They were led to safety.
Through a hole in the wall, fire-
Finding the survivors electrified the fighters found three more children.
rescuers. The firefighters tunnelled “Stay calm,” a rescuer said. “Get on
your bellies. Make like a centipede.”
Carefully but quickly, the men ush-
ered the children out of the rubble.

Meanwhile, another squad of
rescuers picked up a cellphone
signal coming from a crawl space.
They sawed toward voices crying
for help. Soon they found a young
couple and a young woman, all of
whom they pulled to safety.

“Who else is down here?”
“A Roman guy,” one of them said.
“Giampaolo Matrone.”

it was after midnight now, Satur-
day, January 21, some 55 hours since
the avalanche. The rescue team had
been working nonstop for more than
two days. The wreckage was frighten-
ingly unstable. As they moved, the res-
cuers knew that the force of their dig-
ging—or another tremor—could bring
it all down upon them.

Paolo Di Quinzio and three other
rescuers burrowed on, breaking blade

106 december 2020

after blade on their circular saws, bat- beneath his left leg.
tling toward a faint cell signal detected Rescuers raised the concrete beams
deep in the ruins. Suddenly they heard
a voice. They silenced their saws and off Matrone’s limbs with a hydraulic
listened. It was Matrone. jack. “You are a superhero,” Di Quinzio
said as he reached beneath Matrone’s
He was still fading in and out of con- armpits and gently lifted him out of
sciousness. A vision of his wife, Valen- his tomb.
tina, hovered over him, an angel of
mercy, he thought. She assured him he The rescuers placed him on a mat-
would be OK. tress. Matrone gazed up at a dozen
faces silhouetted by the light of their
“Giampaolo, we are here!” Di Quinzio headlamps. A cheer went up in the
shouted, three metres above where the small crowd: “Bravo!” He was one of
trapped man lay. “Are you injured? Are 11 people out of 40 to have survived.
you bleeding?” Soon after, he was airlifted to a hospital
in a nearby town.
As the voices and the buzzing of
saws grew louder, Matrone became Gangrene had begun to burrow
more alert. “Where is my wife?” deep into his right arm. The nerves in
his right ankle had practically been
“We put her in the car because it’s destroyed. Had he been pulled out
cold,” Di Quinzio said. even two hours later, Matrone was
told, his arm would certainly have
At last, at around six in the morning, been lost.
Di Quinzio’s saw broke through a final
thick layer of insulation. He pointed Five days after his rescue, Matrone
his light toward the opening and was given the heartrending news that
spotted Matrone’s back. Di Quinzio his wife had died. Her body had been
could see how the angled beams had found, crushed by debris, near where
created a cocoon that prevented Matrone had been trapped. The angel
Matrone from being crushed to death. who had appeared to him in his fitful
Those near him had not been so dreams had never left his side.
lucky: squeezed in the space with him
were the bodies of two women—one GQ ( JULY 2017), COPYRIGHT © 2017 BY JOSHUA HAMMER,
supporting his head, one curled GQ.COM.

Laugh Now, Cry Later

There’s no life without humour. It can make the wonderful moments
truly glorious, and the tragic moments bearable.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT

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HEART

In my family, a game of euchre
is the answer to everything

BY Jessica Myshrall FROM THE WALRUS

reader’s digest
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reader’s digest

y grandmother loved play through trial and error. Euchre PREVIOUS SPREAD: (WOOD BACKGROUND) ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/SORENDLS; (CARD BACK) ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/SAVANY; (CARDS) ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/MIXMIKE
euchre so much that has variations, but the central rules are
we dropped a deck simple. Four players split into teams of
of cards into her cas- two. Everyone gets five cards, and once
the trump suit has been determined
M ket. “Deal us a hand, through bidding, each player throws
Beth,” my grand- down one card, face up, in turn. The
father said. In spite of our grief, we team with the highest-ranking card wins
laughed. She would have laughed, too. the hand, or “trick.” Points are earned
by the team that wins the most tricks. If
Euchre (pronounced you-ker) runs your team called trump but fails to win
deep in my family’s history. When I the most tricks that round, the other
was growing up in New Brunswick, the team is deemed to have “euchred”
only people I knew who played were you—and earns double points. The first
my mother, my grandparents and the team to reach 10 points wins the game.
friends they had converted.
Euchre is fun to play even if you
My grandparents had two homes: the aren’t that great at it. The games don’t
one they built for their retirement in drag on forever, either, so you can play
the New Brunswick village in which my for as little or as long as you like. It can
grandfather had grown up and the one be excellent for socializing—or, if you
in Toronto where they raised their chil- join our group, for friendly trash talk.
dren. They divided their time equally At times, a gutsy move with no chance
between provinces and drove back and of winning will earn you a “Lord hates
forth every other month. a coward”—a direct quote from my
grandfather’s late cousin, Aunt Elsie.
In my grandparents’ home in New
Brunswick, the 24-card deck and When my mother was battling breast
scoreboard were brought out as soon cancer, my grandmother worried that
as the dinner plates were cleared. We her chemotherapy treatments would
played over strawberry shortcake and make her too sick for euchre. “Mom, I
wine, both homemade. When in could be dying, and I’d still be playing,”
Toronto, my grandparents hosted din- my mother told her. “Oh, me too,” my
ner and euchre on Tuesday nights, grandmother replied.
opening their home to family and
friends. I lived with them while attend- Years after my mother went into
ing university, and it was during those remission, my grandmother main-
Tuesday-night games that my love of tained the same attitude when she
euchre flourished. herself was diagnosed with end-stage
lung cancer. In the weeks before my
PLAYING THE GAME is a rite of passage grandmother died, my family gauged
for members of my family. I learned to

110 december 2020

ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/MIXMIKE Who Invented Euchre? visited my grandfather regularly, but
the card deck and scoreboard remained
Although popular throughout in the cupboard. Having moved else-
Canada and the U.S., its origin is where by then, I dreaded coming back
the stuff of legend. One of the to the house they shared with me for
game’s first rule books, published two years. Walking into the kitchen and
in the 1860s, recounts a popular not seeing my grandmother at the table
theory: two friars, imprisoned for was too painful.
salacious but unknown wrongdo-
ing, invented euchre to pass the It was four months before we played
time. Another guess is that it another Tuesday-night game. Every
“sprang like Venus from the sea” member of the usual group made sure
and can be credited to a sailor to be there. We took extra care to help
named Jack. Its true origins are set out dinner and wash the dishes, but
likely in Germany or France, but our actions felt awkward and strained.
nobody knows for sure where the Then the cards came out, and I took
first hand was played. my grandmother’s seat—sitting there
made me feel close to her. After the first
whether she was having a good day few rounds, we began to ease the ten-
based on how many games she could sion by imitating her. “Dammit,” some-
fit in. We slowed the pace of our games one said when a play didn’t work out
as her health declined and played every in their favour. Everyone smiled. For
round knowing it could be her last. She the rest of the evening, we brought up
was 84 years old and had smoked for our favourite one-liners of hers, like
most of her life. We knew we were “wouldn’t that frost you.”
going to lose her, but we still couldn’t
envision playing without our matri- It has now been more than six years
arch at the end of the table. since my grandmother died. Those who
attend Tuesday-night games continue to
EUCHRE NIGHT was suspended after do so in the same way devout Christians
we lost my grandmother. For a long attend service. We have played through
time, my family felt disjointed. Their illnesses, arguments, divorces and
home in Toronto was eerily quiet in death. Euchre has held us together
her absence. The Tuesday-night crowd and helped us heal. These days, my
boyfriend joins us if he’s free. When
my mother learned he played euchre,
she told me to keep him around. Just
like that, the circle grows.

© 2020, JESSICA MYSHRALL. FROM “HOW EUCHRE
HEALED MY FAMILY,” THE WALRUS (MARCH 2020),
THEWALRUS.CA

rd.ca 111

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LAUGH LINES

The most judgmental People freak out because of sharks
aquatic animal is probably in the ocean. News flash: That’s

the seal of disapproval. where they live! If you see them at
Chipotle, then we have a problem.
— @WHEELTOD
— @BIGKEFD

I’m jealous of
turtles. They can
go home whenever

they want.

— @3SUNZZZ

ADSHOOTER/GETTY IMAGES (BURRITO); BBEVREN/GETTY IMAGES (SHARK) Lobsters would be Shore
proud of themselves Things

if they knew how
expensive they were.

— @MEGSDEANGELIS

I’ve never been more disappointed than “Hermit crab”
when I found out the Miami Dolphins football describes
me twice.
team was made up entirely of people.
— @LISAXY424
— @SAMGRITTNER

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reader’s digest

Rick Cameron spent
weeks in a coma.

EDITORS’ CHOICE

COVID-19 put Rick Cameron in the hospital
for 77 days. The story of his amazing

battle for survival, the doctor who wouldn’t
give up—and the Maritime community
that rallied around them both.

FIGHT OF HIS LIFE

BY Nicholas Hune-Brown

photographs by aaron mckenzie fraser

rd.ca 115

reader’s digest

Rick Cameron was tired. His body ached, and
his breath seemed to catch in his chest—a
bout of the flu, he assumed, something he’d
picked up from the grandkids who’d been
clambering over him the week before.

It was Friday, March 13, and in Stel- prized Ford Falcon and drive to dance
larton, Nova Scotia, the coronavirus night at the local rink. They married
still felt like a distant threat. It was an four years later. It was a relationship,
item on the news, not something that their daughter Kelly used to complain,
could plausibly find its way to this that was so impossibly conflict-free that
sleepy maritime town. it had ruined her conception of what
a marriage should be.
At 69 years old, Rick was healthy and
strong, a six-foot-two former athlete Kelly, a 40-year-old manager at
who had spent decades coaching youth Money Mart, had never really worried
hockey. He’d grown up in a tiny vil- about her dad. He’d always been the
lage on the coast and spent 41 years one to take care of her and her brother
at the Michelin tire plant in Pictou Jeff, helping her through her battles
County, working his way up from fork- with depression as an adult, bringing
lift driver to industrial engineer to his insistently positive attitude to the
business analyst. He’d met his wife, worst situations. After a house fire a
Faye, when he was 17 and she was 15. few years ago, she and her 44-year-old
Rick was blond and outgoing and husband, Brian, had moved into her
“pretty hunky,” Faye remembers. On parents’ three-bedroom Cape Cod–style
Saturdays, after helping his dad on the home in Stellarton. The four of them
lobster boat, he’d pick her up in his have lived together ever since.

116 december 2020

That weekend, with her dad already At the hospital in New Glasgow, doc-
self-quarantining in the basement, Kelly tors swabbed him for COVID before
stood at the top of the stairs and lis- transferring him to Truro, where doc-
tened with growing concern as Rick tors had created a COVID unit in anti-
weathered coughing fits that seemed to cipation of a possible epidemic. That
shake his entire body. On Monday, Rick evening, doctors called Faye to tell her
and Faye drove 40 minutes to the ER the news: her husband had tested pos-
in Truro. Masked health-care workers itive for COVID-19. They weren’t sure
examined him and asked him if he’d where he’d caught it—possibly in the
been out of the country recently. He community, possibly from someone
told them he’d vacationed in Florida for else who had returned from the States.
two weeks in mid-February, but that “What do I do now?” Faye asked. “Pray,”
was nearly a month earlier, well past said the doctor.
COVID’s two-week incubation period.
The hospital said it was only a viral That night, so weak he could barely
infection and released Rick, telling him work the phone, Rick called his wife.
to take some Tylenol and get some rest. “Don’t get upset,” he said. If she started
crying, he knew he’d start too. The doc-
RICK GOT WORSE tors had a plan, he assured her. Before
AS THE WEEK WENT he said goodbye, he apologized for
ON. THEY WORRIED putting her through all this. He told
WHEN HE STRUGGLED her he loved her. When Faye called the
next morning, the hospital told her Rick
TO BREATHE. had been intubated and put into a coma
late that night.
As the week went on, however, Rick
got worse. By Wednesday, he was so THE EIGHT-BED ICU at the Colchester
weak he could barely move. By Thurs- East Hants Health Centre in Truro—a
day morning, he struggled to breathe. town with a population of about
“I think you better call an ambulance,” 12,000—is not often at the forefront of
he told Faye. To reduce the possible modern medicine. When Rick Cam-
spread of the virus, family members eron arrived on March 20, however, the
weren’t allowed in hospitals. As the hospital became home to the first crit-
ambulance was leaving, Faye rushed ically ill COVID patient in the province.
out to give her husband his phone and
say goodbye. The man in charge of his care was
Dr. Kris Srivatsa, a 44-year-old inter-
nal medicine specialist with an easy
smile and a swoosh of salt-and-
pepper hair. Srivatsa had ended up in

rd.ca 117

Dr. Kris Srivatsa credits
Rick’s remarkable
recovery to his team’s
hard work.

Truro almost by accident. Born in Rick had been immediately put on
Mumbai, Srivatsa had relocated to oxygen through a nasal cannula, a tube
the U.S. to finish his medical training. to his nose. But it wasn’t enough. He
In 2009, with his visa running out, needed more than five litres of oxygen
he’d desperately Googled “job oppor- every minute to keep his blood oxy-
tunities in Canada” and stumbled gen levels above 90 per cent. His lungs
upon a posting from a Nova Scotia simply weren’t drawing in enough
town he’d never heard of. air—he had to be intubated.

Just a few months later he found him- THE TRUTH WAS,
self driving deeper and deeper into what KRIS SRIVATSA DIDN’T
felt like uninhabited wilderness, sec- KNOW HOW TO TREAT
ond guessing his decision. But Srivatsa HIS COVID-19 PATIENT.
found an unlikely home in the com-
munity. He’d met his husband, an art- NO ONE DID.
ist and gallerist, and they spent their
vacations hiking Cape Breton Island. That night, the team in Truro care-
“It felt like a homecoming,” he says fully donned their personal protective
today. In 2015, he became a citizen. equipment. Using the buddy system,
team members watched each other
In late February, as the mysterious put on gowns and gloves, N95 masks,
new virus made its way across the globe, face shields and hats until they were
Srivatsa and his team began anxious sweating beneath their armour. They
preparations—creating a COVID unit, sedated Rick, putting him into a coma.
securing personal protective equip- Then the anaesthetist approached.
ment and practising procedures. The key was to do it in one shot—any
more attempts and you increase the
The process of intubation—sedating risk of aerosolization.
a patient before inserting a nearly foot-
long plastic tube down their windpipe— The procedure went perfectly on the
is a routine part of ICU treatment, but first try, and the team quickly worked
it had suddenly become perilous in to stabilize Rick. But the truth was,
the COVID era. There is a high risk of Srivatsa didn’t know how to treat his
aerosolizing a patient’s saliva and respi- COVID patient. No one did. There is
ratory secretions from their lungs and no cure for COVID-19. The most doc-
airways, sending the virus airborne. tors can do is keep a patient alive and
Srivatsa had been following the sto- wait for the body to fight off the virus.
ries of nurses and doctors in Italy
becoming infected and dying. He was
determined not to see that happen in
his hospital.

rd.ca 119

reader’s digest

Srivatsa and his colleagues were learn- her dad would read himself once he
ing about the virus in real time along- recovered. It was also a way to try to
side the rest of the world. feel close to him at a time when COVID
had forced families like hers apart, with
Srivatsa spent his evenings poring hospitals still closed to visitors.
over the latest studies, reading about
what had worked in other countries, For Kelly and Faye, not being able
looking for any clue that might improve to see Rick was the hardest part. For
the likelihood of Rick’s survival. A Srivatsa, too, having to share import-
machine can do the work of breathing ant news over the phone felt cruel
for a person for a little while. But at and impersonal.
that point, early in the pandemic, the
survival rate for people on ventilators BY WEEK THREE,
was grim: up to 90 per cent of COVID RICK WAS STILL IN
patients on ventilators were reported AN INDUCED COMA
to have died. (Later studies found that AND STILL TESTING
those early reports that Srivatsa had POSITIVE FOR COVID.
read were misleading, with the mortal-
ity rate more likely to be in the 30 to 50
per cent range.)

IN THE DAYS AFTER Rick was diagnosed, “Do you have access to Skype or
Faye, Kelly and Brian each received some way that I can video call you?”
their own positive COVID tests. The he asked Faye one day. The doctor
house became a divided sick ward. Faye started a video call on his phone, and
was in the basement, suffering through for the first time in weeks Faye was
her own chest congestion and fever, able to see her husband. “That was a
but thinking only of her husband. Each turning point for me,” she says. She
day was the same: she would wake was able to put a face to the voices of
up, sit in one little corner of the base- all of the nurses and doctors who had
ment, and call the hospital. Then she’d been caring for him. And she could
sit and wait until it felt like a reason- finally picture where her husband
able amount of time had passed before was—not in some strange void in the
calling again. ether, but lying in a hospital bed,
unconscious and shockingly thin, but
With her dad unconscious in the ICU, still fighting, still her Rick.
Kelly started a Facebook page to let
friends and family members know what After that, the family worked out a
was going on. It was a place for her to system with the nurses. They would
record their days—a diary she vowed do video calls with an iPad. Often a

120 december 2020

Beat heart attack
Beat congenital heart disease
Beat cardiac arrest
Beat high blood pressure
Beat sudden devastation

heartandstroke.ca

reader’s digest

nurse would leave a phone on the pil- to the larger hospital with more staff
low in Rick’s room for hours. Faye in Halifax. But these weren’t normal
would tell him they loved him and say times. The move also came with serious
how well he was doing, even if the risks: if something went wrong and Rick
news that day had been bad. When was destabilized and went into cardiac
she ran out of things to say, she would arrest, doctors might not be able to
sing—songs by the Righteous Broth- turn him back in time to save him.
ers and the Beach Boys, all the old
classics she and Rick had listened to When doctors told Faye she needed
a lifetime ago, driving out to the rink to decide if they should do the proce-
in his Ford Falcon. dure, she burst into tears. That day,
Faye and Kelly sat at either end of their
By week three, however, Rick was large living room with Kelly’s brother
still in a medically induced coma, still Jeff on the phone, and talked through
testing positive for COVID. Srivatsa their decision. Suffering through the
and his team adjusted his sedation. worst of her own illness, Kelly would
They tweaked the setting on his venti- fall asleep, then wake in a panic. Faye
lator. But Srivatsa was getting worried. decided she couldn’t agree to anything
Rick’s body’s response to the illness that might endanger her husband. But
had caused widespread inflammation. that night, she couldn’t sleep. “What if
His creatinine levels were up, indicat- I didn’t do the right thing?” she kept
ing a kidney problem. In a growing thinking. The next morning, she gave
number of cases, those symptoms led doctors the okay.
to one outcome. “My goodness,” Sri-
vatsa thought to himself one day. “After On April 3, Srivatsa and his team
all this, he’s not going to make it.” carefully followed the steps they had
learned over video from doctors in Hal-
The doctors needed to get Rick’s ifax. With three nurses on each side
lungs working. One way to do that was of his body, two respiratory therapists
to put him in a prone position, turning attending to the lines and ventilator at
him onto his stomach for a few hours his head, and a doctor at his feet, the
before turning him back so that the team turned Rick. Then they waited.
back of the lungs, which had been Just a few hours later, the improve-
compressed by the weight of his body, ment was already evident: Rick’s oxy-
would be able to do their work. gen levels were ticking up. He was
finally beginning to turn the corner.
Proning a grown man attached to a
series of tubes and lines is a delicate, WHEN KELLY STARTED documenting
complex manoeuvre that takes a team her father’s battle with COVID, she just
of nine. Truro didn’t do the proce- wanted to share his progress. But what
dure in normal times; they sent patients

122 december 2020

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reader’s digest

had begun as a family page quickly too weak to raise it off the bed. He (BOTTOM LEFT AND RIGHT) COURTESY OF KELLY MARSHALL
grew into something much larger. The spoke to Faye and Kelly over the iPad,
“papa bear” Kelly wrote about so mov- trying to make sense of what had hap-
ingly day after day became the face of pened to him. “How long have I been
an illness that was no longer a distant in here?” he asked.
story. The local news covered Rick’s
journey. Kelly’s posts were read by thou- Rick had been on life support for 35
sands, each message gathering hun- days and had lost 45 pounds. But as his
dreds of comments from people across mind grew sharper, he became deter-
the province and the continent. mined to get stronger. When the physi-
cal therapist asked him to do three min-
On Easter Sunday, 25 days after Rick utes on a stepping machine, the next
was hospitalized and nine days after day he would do six. He became singu-
the medical team first rotated him into larly focused on one goal: getting strong
a prone position, nurses called Kelly enough to get home to his family.
and Faye, excited to share some news:
that morning, Rick had opened his Srivatsa was no longer in charge of
eyes. They got Rick on the iPad, and Rick’s care, but he couldn’t help but
there he was—still with tubes all over follow his former patient’s progress
him, still so weak and fighting the from a distance. “He felt like a family
sedation, but awake. member,” says Srivatsa. When some-
one sent him a video of Rick doing
There were ups and downs, but physiotherapy, Srivatsa could scarcely
steadily Rick grew better. Each day believe it. Just three weeks earlier Rick
doctors put him into a prone position had been comatose and intubated, a
for a few hours. Each day they reduced team of nine turning him onto his
the amount of oxygen on the ventila- stomach. Now he was walking, shaky
tor, watching as his lungs became less but determined, wearing a maroon
and less dependent on the machine. hoodie emblazoned with the words
The day they removed his tracheos- “FU COVID.”
tomy tube, the nurses huddled around
him. “Say something!” they urged. “Hi,” ON JUNE 3, Kelly’s 40th birthday and 77
Rick croaked. days after Rick first entered the hospi-
tal, the family was finally able to bring
On April 26, 38 days after entering him home. It was a cold and rainy day.
the hospital, Rick tested negative for When they arrived at the hospital, Rick
COVID. A few days later, he was moved was clutching a cane and wearing the
to the hospital in New Glasgow to start same shorts in which he had first
the long process of recovery. One arrived. “He pretty near ran to the car,”
morning he looked at his hand and felt says Faye. Rick hugged his wife. “Happy
a wave of terror as he realized he was

124 december 2020

Clockwise: Rick’s wife, Faye, and
daughter, Kelly, started a Facebook
group to cheer him on; Rick returns

home, wearing a message to
COVID-19; happier, pre-pandemic times.

reader’s digest

birthday, honey,” he whispered to In the weeks and months since he’s
Kelly, and they both burst into tears. been home, Rick is still trying to make
As they pulled out of the parking lot, sense of his experience. Each day he
they gave a final wave to the nurses walks around the pond near their
who were waiting by the entrance with house, adding laps, gaining strength.
tears in their eyes. He’s only recently been able to make it
through Kelly’s Facebook posts, fighting
After two and a half months, the back tears as he read the thousands of
world outside the hospital walls comments and prayers. It was strange
seemed utterly transformed to Rick. to think about. If you added it up, all the
People wore masks on the streets; people he’d met in his seven decades
“social distancing” and “flattening the in that corner of Nova Scotia—the kids
curve” had become part of the lexicon; he’d coached, the co-workers he’d had
stickers marked where to stand at the a beer with, the countless hellos and
local grocery store. It was a world in pleasantries he’d shared in his person-
which an undercurrent of anxiety ran able way—Rick might have said he
through the most basic human inter- knew thousands. But to see all those
actions. But in that corner of Nova people supporting him, willing him
Scotia, the pandemic had also brought on, taking his personal survival as a
people together. symbol of hope in a dark time, that was
almost too much to take in.
As they turned onto the Camerons’
quiet street, Rick saw a strange sight: a “I can’t walk up the street without
woman he didn’t know on her front cars stopping to talk,” he says. The
lawn, standing under an umbrella in other day a woman approached him at
the pouring rain, waving at him. Before the local fish and chips place. “I know
he could make sense of it, the car who you are,” she told him. She had
pulled into the driveway, and he saw been following his story for months.
40 people—neighbours and friends He was the man who’d seen the worst
and complete strangers—surrounding of COVID, nearly died, and walked out
his house, waving and cheering him the door of the hospital.
on like a conquering hero.

Branch Out

Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree long ago.

WARREN BUFFETT

When trees burn, they leave the smell of heartbreak in the air.

JODI THOMAS, AUTHOR

126 december 2020

holiday

GIFT GUIDE

Perfect Presents for Everyone
on Your List—All Under $50

BY Brett Walther

photograph by liam mogan

rd.ca 127

An alarm clock that rouses you with A fir-scented candle to set an instant holiday
a gradual increase in brightness and mood, $38, chapters.indigo.ca.

volume, $25, ikea.ca.

American Sign Language alphabet discs, Alcohol-free Marvis mouthwash,
$28, treeforttoys.etsy.ca. $22, thebay.ca.

Teas and honey for soothing common cold symptoms,
$28, davidstea.com.

128 december 2020

Breathable athletic face mask,
$35, underarmour.ca.

A place to track NYE resolutions, Pour-over coffee
$12, pocketsquares.etsy.com. maker with filter,
$35, chapters.indigo.ca.

A card game that brings together Swiss+Tech tool kit concealed in a phone case,
the whole family, $25, amazon.ca. $40, homedepot.ca.

rd.ca 129

reader’s digest

Backpack with built-in USB charger,
$35, staples.ca.

Glacier Bay vanity mirror and Portable shoeshine kit, (NO-TOUCH TOOL) LIAM MOGAN
Bluetooth speaker, $17, marshalls.ca.
$30, homedepot.ca.

An antimicrobial tool that helps you avoid contact with high-touch surfaces,
$20, chapters.indigo.ca.

130 december 2020

Marble patterned lap desk, Masontops pickling weights,
$20, homesense.ca. $23, amazon.ca.

Seed spacer garden tool,
$33, amazon.ca.

Love & Lore toque made from KitchenAid compact food processor,
recycled plastic, $49.99, homedepot.ca.

$29, chapters.indigo.ca. rd.ca 131

Tile Pro Bluetooth item tracker, Breadsmart bread-making whisk and scraper,
$40, bestbuy.ca. $20, amazon.ca.

Cotton-blend jacquard throw,
$30, ikea.ca.

Benchmark flexible screwdriver, A pet camera that connects to your mobile (TILE) LIAM MOGAN
$49.99, homehardware.ca. device, $40, petsmart.ca.

132 december 2020

Weleda Skin Food travel moisturizers, Hands Full interactive game,
$20, well.ca. $40, mastermindtoys.com.

Tasco lightweight binoculars,
$25, canadiantire.ca.

Ryobi Air Grip laser level, A non-alcoholic spirit for mocktails,
$40, homedepot.ca. $49, cocktailemporium.com.

For more gift ideas, check out RD.CA/GIFTGUIDE

rd.ca 133

reader’s digest

reader’s digest FOR SHIVER SEEKERS ISTOCK.COM/URFINGUSS

BOOK CLUB MEXICAN GOTHIC
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Give a The Vancouver-based nov-
Great Read elist has written fantasies
set in the Mayan under-
Sometimes the best gift world, vampire noir thrill-
is a book. Here are our ers and outer-space dystopias. Her
favourite 2020 titles. latest, a lush Gothic drama, takes place
in a ghoulish Mexican mansion where
BY Emily Landau a young debutante comes to rescue her
cousin from certain danger. It owes as
134 december 2020 much to the movie Get Out as it does
to Rebecca. $36.

THE RESIDENCE
by Andrew Pyper
This brain-busting horror
novel is inspired by
the true-life tale of Frank-
lin Pierce, the little-
remembered 14th president, whose
son was killed in a gruesome train acci-
dent days before his father’s inaugura-
tion. The way Pyper tells it, the boy’s
spirit follows his family to the White
House, where his presence exposes the
fractures in the Pierces’ marriage and
America’s troubled history. $25.

THE SEARCHER
by Tana French
Few writers are as univer-
sally adored by mystery
connoisseurs as French,
known for slow-burn,
intricately plotted twisters set in fog-
veiled Irish villages. Her new book

is about a gruff detective who retires about the natural world, obsolescence
to a remote cottage in one of those and death—with a healthy smattering
trademark towns. His suitcase is of werewolves, aliens and hungry
barely unpacked before a young boy zombies for some classic Atwoodian
recruits him to track down his miss- weirdness. $33.
ing brother. A wool blanket and mug
of tea complete the creepy-cozy rural PIRANESI
vibe. $36. by Susanna Clarke
And you thought your
EMPIRE OF WILD quarantine was bad: the
by Cherie Dimaline title character of Clarke’s
Growing up near Penetan- new novel lives alone in a
guishene, Ont., Dimaline house that never ends, where thou-
would listen raptly to her sands of pillared halls are filled with
grandmother’s stories of Greco-Roman statues, where the oceans
the rogarou, a dapper werewolf-like are in the basement and the clouds are
creature from Métis folklore. And in on the upper floors. That’s all we’ll say
Dimaline’s breakout thriller, the roga- about the plot, because the joy of the
rou is stalking Georgian Bay forests as book is in discovering its wildly inven-
a local Métis woman named Joan seeks tive world and in untangling the mys-
the truth about her missing husband. tery that keeps Piranesi trapped within
It’s atmospheric and exhilarating, the its walls. $36.
kind of book that will keep scare seek-
ers up long past their bedtimes—and A DEADLY EDUCATION
make them look twice next time they’re by Naomi Novik
in cottage country. $21. The vaunted fabulist Naomi
Novik’s new adult fantasy
FOR LITERATURE LOVERS is set at Scholomance, a
spooky school for fledg-
DEARLY ling magicians. There, a talented
by Margaret Atwood young sorceress must figure out how
You’d think, in the months to stop her magic from destroying
after publishing The Testa- everyone around her. It’s deliciously
ments, last year’s best- ghostly, inventive and feminist—the
selling novel, winning the perfect magic-school book for millen-
Booker for it and selling the rights to nials who grew up on Harry Potter and
Hulu, Atwood might take a break. seek to fill the wizard-shaped hole in
Instead she’s released a new poetry their lives. $35.
collection. It swirls together ideas

rd.ca 135

reader’s digest

WHITE IVY focus to how and why we end up on
by Susie Yang the battlefield. Drawing on everything
Ivy Lin, a young Chinese- from classical history to present-day
American woman taught hostilities, she assesses the elements
the art of petty theft by of human nature that lead us into war,
her grandmother, spins a how the rise of nationalism exacerbated
maelstrom of lies and deception to win our conflicts and the effects of violence
the love of a former classmate, a white on soldiers and civilians. It’s the undis-
Boston Brahmin who embodies every- puted dad book of the season. $35.
thing she wants for herself. There are
shades of The Talented Mr. Ripley in THE EVENING AND
this slinky debut thriller, complicated THE MORNING
by the spectres of race, sex and the by Ken Follett
weighty expectations often placed on Follett’s epic historical nov-
Asian-American women. $26. els are bigger than cinder
blocks—this one clocks in
FOR HISTORY BUFFS at 928 pages—but once you start read-
ing them, it’s impossible to stop. Thirty
MEMORIAL DRIVE years after The Pillars of the Earth, he’s
by Natasha Trethewey written a prequel set toward the end of
This former American poet the 10th century, as Normans, Britons
laureate has written the and Vikings wrestle for control of what
year’s most stunning mem- will soon become medieval England.
oir. In 1985, when she was It’s littered with high-seas adventures,
19, her stepfather shot her mother in meticulously described battle scenes,
the head in their Atlanta apartment. malevolent clergy and humble peasants
Trethewey investigates the untold his- caught in the chaos—in other words,
tory of her mother’s murder and the pure historical candy. $48.
indelible cycles of racism, toxic mascu-
linity and domestic violence that made FOR KITCHEN INSPIRATION
her death almost inevitable. $30.
EAT A PEACH
WAR: HOW CONFLICT by David Chang and
SHAPED US Gabe Ulla
by Margaret MacMillan A gustatory renaissance
After publishing several man, Chang created the
landmark books about the global Momofuku empire,
First World War, Canada’s stars on Netflix’s Ugly Delicious and
unofficial historian-in-chief shifts her has now joined the illustrious league of

136 december 2020

big-name chef memoirists. His book father would find out he was gay. His
ticks the usual boxes, covering his new cookbook, written in collabora-
childhood in Virginia and ascent to tion with Ottolenghi-world insider
food stardom, but it’s also astonish- Tara Wigley, is an ode to Palestinian
ingly candid, delving deep into the food across the diaspora, featuring
psychological tolls of restaurant work, gorgeous, earthy tabboulehs and kof-
his experiences with depression and tas, as well as shawarmas and halvah
suicidal ideation and the struggles he puddings. Even better than the recipes
faced as a Korean-American, both from are the stories of the people Tamimi
within and outside his community. $37. and Wigley met during their research:
a woman in a refugee camp near Beth-
MAENAM: A FRESH lehem who teaches cooking lessons, or
APPROACH TO the operator of the Palestinian Heir-
THAI COOKING loom Seed Library, who preserves
by Angus An foods indigenous to the land. $45.
It may be some time
before we dine again in FOR HEALTH ADVICE
crowded restaurants. In the meantime,
this elegant new cookbook from Angus SOAP AND WATER AND
An, chef of the titular Vancouver restau- COMMON SENSE
rant, can offer some approximation of by Bonnie Henry
the real thing. His recipes are spicy and B.C.’s charismatic public
fresh, with as much inspiration from the health officer has inspired
West Coast as East Asia: expect to find tote bags and T-shirts
such home-cookable dishes as dom emblazoned with her face and catch-
gati, a fiery coconut soup with grilled phrase (“Be calm, be kind, be safe”),
salmon; scallop ceviche cured in Thai which makes now a great time to pick
nahm jim sauce; and Maenam’s famous up her reissued 2009 book for any
black-pepper Dungeness crab. $35. pandemic-weary friends who could
use some cool-headed reassurance.
FALASTIN: A COOKBOOK Originally written in anticipation of
by Sami Tamimi and an H1N1 resurgence (how quaint!), it
Tara Wigley offers a pragmatic, approachable tour
Tamimi, best known as through the history and science behind
Yotam Ottolenghi’s exec- the flu, Ebola, travellers’ illnesses,
utive chef and business STDs and, yes, the coronavirus, which
partner, grew up in Jerusalem, leaving is covered in a newly added introduc-
home at age 17 out of fear that his tion. The short version? Wash your
hands. $19.

rd.ca 137

reader’s digest

BRAINTEASERS

Pic-a-Pix: Knight 2 (PIC-A-PIX: KNIGHT) DIANE BAHER. MORE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS AVAILABLE AT LEARNPICAPIX.COM.
Moderately difficult 36 12 (MATCHING IS SO LAST YEAR) DARREN RIGBY; (ILLUSTRATION) ISTOCK.COM/HEIN NOUWENS
Reveal a hidden picture 2581285426
by shading in groups of 11
horizontally or vertically 3
adjacent cells. The 6
numbers represent how 222
many cells are in each of 52
the corresponding row or 71
column’s groups. (For 431
example, a “3” next to a 231
row represents three 41
horizontally adjacent 51
shaded cells in that row.)
There must be at least one
empty cell between each
group. The numbers read
in the same horizontal or
vertical order as the groups
they represent. There’s
only one possible picture;
can you shade it in?

Matching Is So Last Year
Difficult A man has five pairs of pants (black, blue,
brown, green and grey), five shirts (blue, green, red,
white and yellow) and five hats (black, brown,
red, white and yellow). How many different outfits
of a hat, shirt and pair of pants can he assemble if
an outfit cannot contain two garments of the same
colour? (You may assume that if they have the
same colour name, they’re the same colour.)

138 december 2020

(FICKLE FRIENDS) EMILY GOODMAN; (DOUBLES OR NOTHING) DARREN RIGBY; (SUB HUNT) RODERICK KIMBALL, ENIGAMI.FUN Fickle Friends
Easy Nisha’s friends want to buy her a gift. Originally, 10 friends
were going to chip in equally, but then two of them dropped out.
Each of the remaining eight friends had to chip in another $10 to
bring the total back up to the original amount. How much money
did they plan to collect?

2

5

Doubles or Nothing 5 4
Moderately difficult 4 2
A gambler proposes a
game: Pay $10 and roll Sub Hunt EXAMPLE
two evenly weighted
eight-sided dice with the Difficult Four submarines
sides labelled 1 through
8. If you get doubles must be located. The grid
(two numbers the
same), you win $60. above is a sonar display. 4
The gambler will allow
you to set aside one The numbers represent sonar 2
die with any number sensors telling the total
showing and just roll
the other one to get number of sea squares at any
doubles—if you pay $5
more. If you play, should distance directly north, south,
you set aside the die?
Should you play at all? east and/or west from the sensor that are occupied

by submarines. The subs are each three sea squares

long. Can you find all four sneaky submarines?

For answers, turn to PAGE 143

rd.ca 139

reader’s digest

TRIVIA 11. Pantomimes are a
British holiday tradition.
BY Samantha Rideout Which of these celebrities
has not acted in one:
David Hasselhoff, Kristen
Bell or George Takei?

1. What hot beverage, 6. Winter is caused when 12. Some say they can fly,
enjoyed throughout the the earth is furthest from but can reindeer swim?
Western world during the sun. True or false?
the holiday season, goes 13. Bacteria called Xylella
back at least as far as the 7. In 2020, a British man fastidiosa can infect cer-
ancient Romans? was sentenced to four tain trees and may drive
years in prison for trying to up the price of what fatty
2. Which of the following steal what national relic? cooking staple?
things would you not
need to complete a mod- 8. The four letters on a 14. What African-
ern pentathlon: a horse, a dreidel stand for “Nes American athlete annoyed
bicycle, a sword, a pistol gadol haya sham,” the Nazis by setting three
or a swimsuit? meaning what? world records at the 1936
Olympics in Berlin?

3. Barack Obama’s 9. The first time Erno 15. According to the ISTOCK.COM/MALERAPASO
mother, Stanley Ann Dun- Rubik tried to solve his Bible, how many wise
ham, studied and worked own invention, the men brought gifts to
in what academic field? Rubik’s Cube, how long the child Jesus?
did it take him?
4. How long is Diwali, the
Hindu festival of lights? 10. What holiday do Ira-
nians celebrate on the
5. Roughly what fraction longest night of the year
of the world’s population with pomegranates and
caught the infamous watermelons, among
1918 flu? other foods?

Answers: 1. Mulled wine. 2. A bicycle. 3. Anthropology. 4. Five days. 5. One-fifth. 6. False. It’s
caused when your hemisphere is tilted away from the sun. 7. An original copy of the Magna Carta.
8. “A great miracle happened there.” 9. Over a month. 10. Yalda. 11. Kristen Bell. 12. Yes.
13. Olive oil. 14. Jesse Owens. 15. The number of wise men isn’t specified in the Bible.

140 december 2020

WORD POWER

This quiz hides a menagerie of beasts. See if 9. asperity—
you’re eagle-eyed enough to spot the animal A: financial decline.
embedded in each word, then identify the B: harshness.
C: sharpness of flavour.
correct definition.
10. nomothetic—
BY Beth Shillibeer A: magnetically repellent.
B: adhering to a precise
method.
C: relating to general
scientific laws.

1. catharsis— 5. swanky— 11. toponym—
A: fluid drainage. A: graceful. A: place name.
B: release of repressed B: fashionably luxurious. B: insignia.
emotion. C: lacking life skills due to C: ornamental capstone.
C: sealing off. having been pampered.
12. execrable—
2. bemuse— 6. endogenic— A: exceptionally talented.
A: inspire. A: resulting from genetic B: extremely bad.
B: speculate. modification. C: tediously slow.
C: confuse. B: concerning extinct
species. 13. motorcade—
3. parhelion— C: formed or occurring A: procession of motor
A: bright spots on either beneath the earth’s vehicles.
side of the sun. surface. B: large parking garage.
B: device to partition C: car show.
wavelengths.
C: ring of fire in the sky 7. encroach— 14. forbearance—
caused by certain partial A: embroider. A: ancestral lineage.
solar eclipses. B: encrust. B: restraint and patience.
C: intrude. C: weight capacity.

4. pugnacious— 8. iterate— 15. epigone—
A: argumentative. A: perform repeatedly. A: mythic story.
B: foul-smelling. B: explain in detail. B: role model.
C: distasteful. C: make a list of items. C: inferior imitator.

rd.ca 141

reader’s digest

WORD POWER earth’s surface; as, The 12. execrable—
ANSWERS child soothed himself by B: extremely bad; as,
petting his dog as he Snow-crab fishing in the
1. catharsis—B: release watched a show about Gulf of St. Lawrence has
of repressed emotion; as, endogenic disasters. had execrable effects on
Watching A Street Cat endangered right whales.
Named Bob served as a 7. encroach—C: intrude;
catharsis for Sonya’s grief as, Although they often 13. motorcade—A: pro-
over the loss of her pet. encroach on our homes, cession of motor vehicles;
roaches could help as, The small Pacific
2. bemuse—C: confuse; humans by eating trash. town’s Orca Fest featured
as, The emu has bemused a motorcade of floats.
biologists as they’ve 8. iterate—A: perform
searched for advantages repeatedly; as, A recent 14. forbearance—
that compensate for its study had rats iterate B: restraint and patience;
inability to fly. navigational challenges as, The mother bear dis-
in a small car-like vehicle. played an air of forbear-
3. parhelion—A: bright ance when her cubs tried
spots on either side of the 9. asperity—B: harsh- to play-wrestle with her.
sun; as, At sunset, after a ness; as, Natasha declared
day of lion-watching, the her loathing of the “great 15. epigone—C: inferior
tourists lucked into a outdoors” with asperity imitator; as, Pigcasso the
stunning parhelion. after spotting an asp lying painting pig is sure to
on the path ahead. inspire many epigones.
4. pugnacious—A: argu-
mentative; as, Chenlei’s 10. nomothetic— CROSSWORD
pug was pugnacious with C: relating to general sci- ANSWERS
other dogs. entific laws; as, To explore
wider principles of insect FROM PAGE 144
5. swanky—B: fashion- navigation, scientists have
ably luxurious; as, The devised nomothetic stud- AORTAS HEN
fundraiser for restoring ies of moth migration.
trumpeter swans in ALVEOL I AXE
Ontario was a swanky 11. toponym—A: place
affair with a live band. name; as, The Red Pony F LEAP I T VCR
Stands horse sanctuary
6. endogenic—C: formed bears a toponym reflect- T E RMS SEED
or occurring beneath the ing the effort to preserve
the Lac La Croix Indige- SNL APPEAL S
nous Pony.
AV I RONS

I MP A L E R H EW

RAPT T ROV E

I F I PLEATED

S I N HANGAR S

HAG ONDU T Y

142 december 2020

BRAINTEASERS SUDOKU
ANSWERS

FROM PAGE 138 BY Jeff Widderich

Pic-a-Pix: Knight

89 27 3
7 61 6
4
Matching Is So Last Year 8 56
90.

Fickle Friends 621 5
$400.

Doubles or Nothing 4 58 7
Your odds of winning are 9 75
1/8 whether you set aside
a die or not, so you should 32 SOLUTION
not waste the extra $5. If
you win, you get back only To Solve This Puzzle
six times your bet. With
1/8 odds, the prize should Put a number from 1 to 9 in
be at least eight times each empty square so that:
your bet for this game to
be worth playing.

Sub Hunt ) every horizontal row and 348962715
vertical column contains all 756148293
2 nine numbers (1-9) without 219573486
repeating any of them; 187359624
5 534826179
) each of the outlined 3 x 3 692714358
5 4 boxes has all nine numbers, 475681932
4 2 none repeated. 921435867
863297541

rd.ca 143

reader’s digest

CROSSWORD

Leap Year 33 ID for CRA forms
34 Bombers’ homes
BY Derek Bowman 35 Fairy-tale figure
36 Working, say
1 23456 789
DOWN
10 11 1 Famed CFL quarter-
back Damon
12 13 2 Like shingles on a roof
3 Package of paper
14 15 4 Part of a ship’s rig
5 Boxing great Muhammad
16 17 18 19 6 Look after kids or pets
7 Could still achieve
20 21 8 Do very well
9 Candy usually sold with
22 23 24 25 26 two flavours in a box

27 28 29 10 Matinee times, for short
15 Ottawa athlete, familiarly
30 31 32 18 Grand ___, Nova Scotia

33 34 (Acadian site)
19 Foretell
35 36 21 Brewery fixture
22 Setter or wolfhound type
ACROSS 17 Legal actions 23 The Godfather group
1 Major arteries 20 Canoe paddles, 25 Not just some
7 Barnyard bird 26 Gets married
to voyageurs 29 Italian sauce
10 Small air sacs in the lungs 22 Vicious nickname 31 Vietnamese noodle soup
11 Chop down 32 Jour de ___ (New
12 Rundown establishment for Vlad III who
13 Passé program- inspired Dracula Year’s Day)
24 Chop down
taping device 27 Spellbound For answers, turn to PAGE 142
14 Contract conditions 28 Store of valuable things
15 Start a garden 30 “___ Had a $1,000,000”
16 NBC sketch show 31 Folded, as fabric

144 december 2020

NEW SEASON

MONDAY TO THURSDAY 7:30/8 NT