Fort McPherson woman cooks lunch for stranded truckers
'I thought, I'm gonna get up and cook a lunch for them,' says Diane Koe
If you were ever to get stuck on the highway in a blowing snowstorm, you'd do worse than to be trapped in Fort McPherson, N.W.T.
Located on the Dempster Highway, hosting travellers — mostly truckers — who are waiting for the road to open is nothing new for the community. Snowstorms often cause road closures on the highway between Fort McPherson and Eagle Plains, Yukon.
However, Fort McPherson, with a population of about 800, does not have a restaurant. And when the highway recently closed for five days, Diane Koe decided to take matters into her own hands, whipping up a hot, home cooked meal for roughly 15 stranded truckers.
Koe says she was struck with inspiration on Sunday afternoon, after having lunch with her children.
"I was just relaxing, and I thought I know how it feels to be waiting for the road to open," says Koe. "And I know how it feels when you're travelling, and you're just eating restaurant food, or store sandwiches or whatever. And I thought about all those truck drivers.
"And I thought, I'm gonna get up and cook a lunch for them. So I got up and start getting everything ready, and my girls are like: 'What you doing, mom?' And I said: 'I'm going to cook a home-cooked meal for all these truck drivers, and just give them something good to eat for today.'"
Koe's daughters were recruited to help, and her sister agreed to pitch in ingredients. After posting on Facebook to ask how many truck drivers were stuck in the community, another local, Eleanor Mitchell-Firth, offered to make bannock.
Koe cooked diced up chicken breast with celery, onions and mushrooms tossed with spaghetti and mixed with soy sauce — a recipe she calls "very filling and mighty delicious!"
"And by the time I was done cooking, Eleanor had the bannock ready, and I made up 17 plates of a good hot meal, I made a thermos full of coffee and a thermos full of tea, and I went up there and started honking at their trucks and banging on their doors," she says.
"I think they must have thought the road was open, because when I was honking, they were all getting up. You could tell they were sleeping."
Koe's cooking was a hit with the truckers, some of whom came back for seconds. "They were so thankful, very grateful," she says.
"Some of them offered me money, and I told them that wasn't my intention. I just wanted to give them a good hot meal, and this is Tetlit Gwich'in hospitality. This is the way our people are."