Dee Goldhawk rides the bus from Ridgetown to Chatham three times a week for dialysis
It isn’t easy to rile Dee Goldhawk. The Ridgetown woman is legally blind, requires dialysis and has cancer but despite those issues, she usually greets people with a smile and a “somebody else has it worse” attitude.
You could say she’s taken the bumps and bounces of life but one set of bumps has finally gotten her over the edge.
Goldhawk uses the Inter Urban Transit System three times a week to travel from home to the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance for her dialysis but during the past two years the roads have deteriorated to the point where it’s more like a wagon train that 21st century transportation.
After a few phone calls (she’s more than persistent) I took her up on her offer to ride the bus last week.
“At least you showed up,” she said with a smile as I arrived at her home. “I’ve made the offer to the mayor for the past year but he’s too busy,” she said. “I even told him I’d pay the $5 just so he’d know what I’m talking about.”
What she’s talking about is a bone-jarring 90-minute ride through Ridgetown, along the Ridge Road to Blenheim, from Blenheim to Charing Cross and into Chatham along Lacroix Street.
When I board the bus at 9:30, the only other people aboard are Dan (Bourdeau) the driver and a young man named Ken who’s travelling to Chatham for physiotherapy.
While Ken and Dee take the forward facing “bucket” seats, I opt for a bench seat across the aisle. It was a rookie mistake.
The bus took a turn, hit a bump and I almost ended up on the floor.
“I should have warned you about that,” Ken laughed. “You might be slipping around a bit.”
At our next stop, we pick up Mary, who travels to Chatham just about every day. The regulars all know each other and begin chatting with Dan about television shows and other things.
“He’s really good,” Dee says as Dan checks to make sure the temperature is fine.
The “really good” assessment is witnessed moments later when the bus goes past two women standing a few meters from a bus stop on Main St. East.
Dan and Mary spot the pair just as we passed by and one look in the rearview shows we missed a passenger. Dan swings the bus around a corner and picks up the woman, a first time rider named Eleanor who’s on her way to a luncheon with friends at Caleb Village in Chatham.
“I don’t drive and the girls have been coming out to see me so I thought I’d try this,” she said shortly after her daughter helped her get aboard. “One of the women in our group is 90 now and we like to get together as much as we can.”
Dan shrugs off his good deed. A five-year veteran, he says he enjoys dealing with people.
“When I first started, I wondered how a driver could know their passengers but I understand now. For those people you see regularly, you become a part of their lives.”
As we head out of town there are some smooth sections but much of the trip reminds me of those old Second World War movies where Allied bombers are knocked around by anti-aircraft fire.
Taking notes or photos is a hit and miss proposition but Dee said it has been worse. “They’ve patched some of the holes but it doesn’t last long,” she said. “What they need to do is take some of that money they paid for that railroad we bought and repave some roads.”
What really set Dee off was a young adult who had to use the bus for medical reasons.
“When we hit a bump, he just made these little noises. It seemed like he was in a lot of pain. It’s a three-hour plus trip both ways. I called the mayor and left a message asking him how he could sleep when people were in such pain. He has called me back sometimes but it’s all just words.”
Dee said it’s not just the bumps but the noise has been far too loud.
“I got a portable decibel meter. Eighty-six decibels is loud. On that trip, we were over that regularly and we hit 107. It’s better with a newer bus but it’s still awfully loud.”
Mary said she’s been told that the roads would be fixed for seven years. “It’s not going to happen,” she said. “We’re not that important.”
In Blenheim we pick up a man with a shopping cart and a student, and then another student in Charing Cross.
“We have a cross section of people,” Dee said. “This is a service which is really needed and with the population changing, we will need it even more. I think if they just improved the roads more people would use it.”
She’s not giving up.
“(East Kent) Councillor David VanDamme has agreed to ride,” she said. “If I have to get them out here one at a time I’ll do it.”
Inter Urban Transit System driver Dan Bourdeau has been driving buses for the past five years. He says getting to know the riders is one of the best parts of the job.
