N.S. woman looking for Islanders who helped after highway accident

A woman in Nova Scotia is looking to thank the three Prince Edward Islanders who helped her after her truck spun out of control and got stuck in the median of the highway.

Shirley Leadbetter was heading to Oxford, N.S., on Sunday to deliver Christmas presents to her grandchildren and was nearing a toll booth when the accident happened.

"It was really starting to snow," she said, and the roads were getting slick and harder to drive on.

All of a sudden, vehicles began passing her and slush from passing cars built up on her windshield. She lost control of the truck as it spun and wound up stuck in the median ditch.

"Oh my God," she recalled thinking. "I was just terrified."

All I wanted to do was get a message to the fella and say thank you​​​​​​.​— Chris Leadbetter, Shirley's son

She was a little shaken up, but she was OK as cars continued flying by. Nobody noticed her in the ditch, she said. She crawled up to the highway and said she tried to flag someone down, but no one stopped for quite some time.

Until she saw a little car slow down and turn its blinker on.

'It's Christmas'

"This young fella jumped out of the car and came running down toward me and asking me if I was OK and if I needed an ambulance," she said.

Leadbetter said she immediately felt better, comforted by a young Islander who called for a tow truck and stayed with her as they waited.

"It was just like somebody was saving my life," Leadbetter said. "To think that people were just driving by and he was the only kind spirit." 

He was driving with his fiancée and his sister, she said, and the three were heading home for the holidays. Leadbetter tried to convince them to go, because they had a long road ahead to P.E.I., and in bad weather.

They didn't budge, she said. Not until they knew for sure that she'd be fine. 

Eventually, Leadbetter convinced them to leave because the snow wasn't slowing down. She offered to pay him and he apparently told her "no, no. Afterall, it's Christmas." 

They left and soon the tow truck arrived and hauled her vehicle up onto the highway. She paid her bill and drove her truck to the toll booth, but was anxious driving because "the snow was absolutely terrible." 

When she was at the toll booth she called her family to pick her up because she was too nervous to drive any further.

Her son, Chris Leadbetter, came and picked her up and he'd asked who the people were who'd stopped.

"I was in so much shock at that time, I don't remember," she said. So Chris decided to put a message on Facebook to see if they could find the Islanders who'd helped his mom.

'It meant the world to me'

When he thinks about the conversation he had with Shirley, as she'd described the Islanders and how they'd stayed with her, Chris said "it brought a tear to my eye."

It still does when he thinks about it. 

"I couldn't ask for any better. All I wanted to do was get a message to the fella and say thank you, and let him know that I appreciate what he'd done," he said.

"It meant the world to me."

Chris and Shirley are hoping to reach them someday, hopefully soon. 

All she can recall about the Island man was that he was younger, clean-cut with curly hair and he was wearing a leather jacket, she thought.

"If he was here I'd give him another big hug and say thank you," she said.

"You made my family's Christmas, to be able to help me out. I wish him and his family a very Merry Christmas. They raised him right."

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