Mother of the Year
By raincoasterOkay, it’s only March, but the search for Mother of the Year is over. All you Alpha Moms and Alpha Mummies can just pack it in and turn into Roseanne for the rest of the year, because single mom Marjorie Jean-Baptiste of Montreal has thrashed all possible or conceivable challengers completely.
From the CBC:
A Montreal mother of seven saved the lives of her children by throwing them out the window of a burning building on Thursday night.
The 34-year-old woman and her children, who are all between the ages of two and 10, were inside their east-end apartment on Élie-Beauregard Street when a fire broke out on the building’s ground floor just before midnight.
Firefighters report that, while there were two fire alarms in the building, neither appeared to work. Time to take five minutes make sure yours are working properly, no? We’ll wait till you’re done.
As flames and smoke spread in the building, the mother gathered her children at a second-storey window.
By the time firefighters arrived, responding to a neighbour’s 911 call, she had thrown six of her children into a snowbank about five metres below, and then jumped with her youngest child in her arms.
“By doing what she did, she saved her family,” said paramedic Bart Paranello. “She saved her kids. She’s a hero.”
You can say that again. Seven times.
March 12th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
That’s some story! Kudos to this mother for thinking quick.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Isn’t she amazing? I can’t imagine what it takes to be a single mom of seven at the best of times!
March 13th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
That’s awesome. Good for her for keeping a clear head and figuring out what to do.
The management of my apartment building really does test the smoke alarms regularly–I’ve been home when they send people in with long sticks to poke at the alarms so they beep–and conducts fire drills twice a year as well. It’s annoying to have to stop what I’m doing and walk down eight flights of stairs, but I’m glad they make us do it all the same.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
That’s good to hear. I’m extra-sensitive to this issue since A) my apartment manager didn’t start doing this until this year, when the insurance company threatened to revoke coverage and B) our fire alarms go off every time there’s a heavy rain, since the water leaks into the building and comes out via the smoke detector on the second floor. USEFUL!