How a weekly phone call turned into a love story for 2 N.B. seniors

When you drive up to Brenda Trafford’s home in Murray Corner, in southeastern New Brunswick, you can see why she’d never want to leave.

It is a unique 12-sided, dodecagon house, with windows on all sides, overlooking the Northumberland Strait and the Confederation Bridge.

It’s a special place she shared with her husband, Tom, until he passed away nearly 12 years ago.

Trafford has kept herself busy with friends and family and creating crafts and clothing she sells at a local market.

But when she heard about the Nursing Homes Without Walls program, which matches volunteers with seniors in their communities, she signed up immediately.   

The volunteers run errands, drive seniors to appointments and do regular check-ins.

Trafford said knowing she would receive a phone call every Wednesday was “reassuring” and just what she needed.

“Somebody knows where I am and how I am,” she said.

Her initial match in the program “apparently became ill. So I received a call on a Monday, and it was a male voice, and my musical mind went, ‘Oh — that’s an interesting sounding voice.'”

The voice at the other end was David Steele. He had recently lost his wife and decided he wanted to spend some of his time volunteering.

“I got up one morning and realized that I owed New Brunswick and Nova Scotia — from which I received a pretty decent life — that maybe it was payback time and coincidentally, there was an ad on the radio looking for volunteers.”

Steele signed up to make weekly phone calls to fellow seniors who needed support.

“I had my call list … the members were divided up into groups of seven or eight people, and my dear Brenda was one of those people,” he said.

“So I started off and she had a very nice phone voice too, which kind of impressed me.”

The phone calls continued for another few weeks and then they decided to meet in person.

The weren’t looking, but love found them

Trafford invited Steele to her home and they hit it off immediately.

“We chatted for hours,” she said. “I think he arrived at one o’clock or something. He stood on the top step for a little while before he came all the way into the room.”

They talked about their interests in crafting, music, puzzles, food and travel. They also shared their experiences as widow and widower, each knowing the other would understand.

“Because of the way my wife passed,” Steele said, “a lot of nights she couldn’t sleep, and I would go chat with her, and she said, ‘I’m going to be gone soon and we’ve had our time together. And I don’t want you to waste the rest of your life wailing and gnashing your teeth because I’m gone. I want you to live life and do what you want to do.'”

Steele and Trafford are definitely living life. They’ve kept their respective homes but are in close enough proximity to regularly travel back and forth.

They go to restaurants, shop for groceries and take the occasional road trip together, which makes Steele appreciate Trafford even more. 

“I love her because I can go to Fredericton and we don’t have to stop for a pee,” Steele said with a laugh.

Trafford, who is approaching her 90th birthday, said they laugh a lot when they’re together, and she marvels at the life she’s living.

“I wasn’t looking,” she said of finding love. “I thought that was part of my life was over.

“Having a partner is a whole lot more comforting for me than living alone, and I’m lucky, lucky, lucky that it happened.”