THE SUSTAINING POWER OF KINDNESS

My friend John is a big Toronto Maple Leaf fan.

Unfortunately, my double amputee neighbour whom I first wrote about in A Renewed Friendship in November, 2011, had more health challenges that required hospitalization last December.

When I visited him at the Mackenzie Health Centre over the Christmas holidays, he seemed disoriented and dispirited. He returned home just in time for the start of the hockey season in January and I’ve been visiting him ever since to watch Leaf games.

Knowing that John dreams in blue and white, I try to put my Quebecois allegiances aside whenever Toronto plays Montreal.

It’s hard for John to live on his own, a small fluffy dog and a quiet canary his only companions. He clings to the faint hope that one day he might drive again as well as take a trip to Italy with his daughters.

When I visit, I try to get John talking about his life as a boy in Calabria, his immigration to Canada in the early sixties, his career as a barber and of course, his family.

His story is fascinating and despite his current health issues, he constantly repeats that he has been blessed throughout his life. John began his career as a barber in the Bayview Village plaza back in 1963. In those days, the outdoor mall consisted of Loblaws and a few shops including a furniture store, a jewelry store and a pizzeria.

At that time, Bayview and Sheppard was a popular area that seemed to attract many of Toronto’s top athletes. John boasts about cutting the hair of some of the Maple Leafs of that era including Bobby Baun, Tim Horton, Carl Brewer, Dick Duff, Eddie Shack, Bob Nevin as well as retired Ace Bailey.

“Haircuts were 75 cents back then. Most of the Leafs would give me two dollars. Tim Horton was my best tipper by far…he’d give me five dollars. I loved those guys,” John says nostalgically. “I’ll never forget their kindness to me.”

And then the stories begin and I turn down the TV as John reminisces.

“Bobby Baun would bring me bales of hay from his farm for the crèche I would set up every Christmas. George Armstrong would always tease that I could his hair too quickly. In those days, everyone wanted a brush cut. After Eddie Shack retired, he continued to see me whenever he’d sell his Christmas trees in the mall parking lot. I used to trim his moustache for free. He was a real character!”

“What about Toronto Argonauts?” I ask. “Did you meet any of them?”

“Not too many but I did cut Joe Theismann’s hair for a few years in the early seventies. He was a wonderful man. And then a little later, there was an Italian boy, a running back for the Argos. He used to come in and show me his bruises after a game.”

An Italian running back from the seventies or eighties?  My mind drew a blank.

“His family was from Northern Italy. I think his first name was Mark.”

I smile when I realize the coincidence.

“You mean Mark Bragagnolo,” I exclaim. “Would you believe I taught him in my first grade 12 class at Brebeuf back in the early seventies?”

Now I was the one doing the name dropping.

As I listen to John and watch his eyes light up as he speaks, I realize the sustaining power of an act of kindness even if it was performed fifty years ago.

And no, I’m still not a Leaf fan. But don’t tell that to John.