WATCH: The mid-Island is digging out from under as much as 15 centimetres of snow after the Parksville-Qualicum area was the hardest hit by Sunday’s snow squalls. Freezing temperatures mean it’s not going anywhere and more could be on the way.
Navid Eshraghr was busy making his rounds Monday, clearing snow from his senior neighbours’ Parksville driveways and sidewalks.
“Whenever it snows I come and clean their driveway,” said the Parksville resident.
“I’m just helping people, that’s all it is.”
“Oh he’s a good man,” said his neighbour Lorraine McArthur.
Eshraghr, an immigrant from Iran, said he’s returning the kindness his community has shown him.
“Oh he’s a good man,” said his neighbour Lorraine McArthur.
“He started when my husband was dying. He started doing my driveway and he’s never stopped.”
Parksville-Qualicum was blanketed by Sunday’s snow squalls, hit harder than anywhere on Vancouver Island.
Tommy Anderson was using old hockey sticks as poles to navigate the snowy sidewalks Monday.
“These are good,” said Anderson.
“I’d be slipping all over the place. It’d be great to have skis but I mean I don’t have skis.”
The sudden snowfall had landscapers who would be tending to lawns and planting in the mild climate doing a quick change and shovelling clients out of their yards instead.
And the area is expecting more snow.
“They’re calling for more snow,” said Lise Madsen of Growing Concern Services.
“And its a 70 per cent chance so we have our woolies on standby,” said Madsen.
So will David Eshraghr, who will be ready for whatever Friday’s forecasted snowstorm brings by helping his neighbours weather the storms of life with a snowblower and willingness to help.
Skye Ryan
