Christmas angels

Dear sir:
We, the crew of the dedicated air ambulance service out of Sioux Lookout, wish to extend out thanks and unparalleled gratitude to two Fort Frances families.
After a long day of delays in our travels of moving patients to their respective destinations, we experienced the love that only can come from earthly angels.
We were able to get back into Canada after dropping off a patient in Duluth, Mn. However, the limitations of our duty day forced us to remain on the ground and were unable to return to our families who were expecting us for Christmas dinner.
Fortunately, we were able to find accommodation in a local hotel.
As we well know, local cab drivers are the best source of information regarding open restaurants or anything else for that matter, but nothing could have prepared us for what happened that night.
Our cab driver, Matt Maki, asked his dispatcher, Chad Buist, if there were any restaurants open. After phoning around, he was unsuccessful in locating an open restaurant on Christmas night.
Out of desperation, I asked Matt, “Does your Mom cater?”
He thought for a few seconds (my guess is that he was picturing his mother’s reaction) and replied, “Well yeah! We had a big turkey with all the trimmings and I’m sure we can help you out.”
He informed Chad that after he dropped us off, he was going home for a few minutes so he could stop to get us some dinner. Chad said they had lots, too.
About 30 minutes after we were dropped off at our hotel, I heard a knock on my door. It was Matt and Chad with unbelievable amounts of food.
While I went to get the pilots and other paramedic, they began to unpack. There was turkey, stuffing, squash, mashed potatoes, corn, carrots, cabbage rolls, meat pie, pickles, buns, butter, and cranberry sauce.
Then they took from the bags Christmas cookies, tangerines, pumpkin pie and whipped cream, along with pop and Peanut brittle.
As you can well imagine, we were . . . I can’t find the words I want to explain how we felt. Surprise and gratitude are but a few, but I can’t express the magnitude of our gratitude in this letter.
There is yet one more thing that we will never forget. It was a Christmas card wishing us all well.
There are times when doing the job we do becomes tiring and we often feel unappreciated. This act of kindness means more to us than anything.
To both the Maki and Buist families, thank you so much!
(Signed),
Corey Simoens, Sonny Peddle
Mike Ewings, and Joan Clarke