Four local people were specially honoured by the Town of Stettler for their determined efforts to rescue a missing elderly gentleman – a dear friend and neighbour – during cold weather this March.
Stephen and Sheryl Hadwell of Rochon Sands, and Rosalind LaRose of Stettler and her daughter Stephanie Hadley were recognized by the Town of Stettler for saving the life of Lex Bickle, a gentleman in his mid-80s who served in World War 2.
“We were told that if he had been found one hour later, he would have died,” said LaRose.
“He sat down by the fencepost around sunset and he said he never expected to see daylight again.”
Bickle was located about one mile west of his truck that had been destroyed by fire after he tried desperately to drive out of a snow-plugged trail.
After they searched the Rochon Sands area for about 17 hours overnight in cold winter weather, the life-saving quartet found the man – wearing light clothing – sleeping by a fencepost on a rugged road between Rochon Sands and White Sands on March 10 around 11:30 a.m.
“It was quite an ordeal,” said LaRose.
“It’s just a duty I would do any day.”
“It was quite an emotional two days,” said Sheryl Hadwell.
“We were just helping a close friend,” said Stephen Hadwell.
“As a world war veteran, he put his life on the line to give us the lifestyle we’ve got these days.”
When they discovered his truck totally burned around 9 a.m. about four miles southeast of Rochon Sands, they feared the worst.
“When we saw the truck burned, we all thought he had perished,” said Sheryl.
After police discovered the no human body was inside, they were relieved and began to search on foot through deep hard-packed snow and found him about 30 minutes later.
“He did remarkable to survive this,” said LaRose.
“He walked about one kilometer through very hard-packed snow and deep ruts,” said Stephen Hadwell.
Suffering from hypothermia, he had to wait two hours for the ambulance to arrive after a local farmer plowed the snow from the road.
He was initially reported missing after the Hadwells noticed that his truck was not home at a time when he was normally home.
“When we saw that his truck wasn’t home at that time, “we knew something was wrong,” said Sheryl Hadwell.
That’s when LaRose, past president of the Royal Canadian Legion Stettler branch, was notified by the Hadwells.
Bickle was last seen by the Hadwells when he made his regular visit to their business around 2:30 p.m. after he had his regular Tuesday lunch at the Stettler Legion.
“We traveled 321 kilometers searching for Lex,” said Sheryl as they drove up and down the many roads that Bickle has driven countless times and can tell stories about his many ventures.
“He was traveling beyond where he should have driven,” said LaRose, who was celebrating a wedding anniversary with her husband Stephen on that heroic day.
“I couldn’t have received a better anniversary gift than to see him alive,” said LaRose.