Stepping up to create hope out of tragedy

Steps for Life is returning to Medicine Hat for the first time since 2015.

Nittel has been involved with Threads of Life for close to a decade after her son Blaine died when the pump truck he was driving rolled in a ditch and he was pinned in the cab. He was 21 when the accident happened in 2012.

“Anybody who knows me knows I will always talk about my son Blaine. I quite honestly say I have three children. One lives in Redcliff, one’s on the farm with us and Blaine’s in heaven and by my side every day,” she says.

“People that go to Threads of Life get that. It doesn’t bother people if we talk about the injury of our loved one or the hidden injuries we don’t see. So for us, it’s a safe landing place, the place we can say anything.”

She says prior to Threads of Life’s founding 20 years ago there was no place for families who suffered workplace tragedies to go for information or support.

When describing it and what it has meant to her, she uses the words empathy and sympathy.

“You can sympathize with me because my son died at work. I’m hoping you don’t empathize with me because I hope you haven’t experienced the same thing,” Nittel says.

Nittel adds safety is something to consider 24-7, 365 days a year at play and at work.

Registration for the Steps for Life walk is at 10 a.m. Saturday. The five-kilometre walk begins at 11 a.m.

More information is available at stepsforlife.ca.

by Chris Brown

Stepping up to create hope out of tragedy

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