We received the following letter and photos from the caregiver of a survivor of the horrific train wreck in Almonte in 1942:
Margaret Lisinski, together with two of her siblings, was on that train. She was badly hurt and it took two years for her to recuperate in hospital and at home from serious damage to her legs. Thanks to a very skillful and caring doctor, amputation of her leg was avoided.
Ms. Lisinski did suffer tremendous health hardships and a lot of pain, even now at age 94.
She will be celebrating her 94th birthday on September 18th and resides in Ottawa in a retirement residence.
Attached is a picture of her in the hospital, after the accident, and with her two siblings, all on crutches.
The Almonte Train Wreck happened just after Christmas in 1942, when a troop train rear-ended a passenger train standing in the station at Almonte, at the site of the present-day library. Thirty-nine people were killed and more than 150 were injured.
