A Montreal resident shares a heartwarming encounter with a stranger on the eve of Christmas after desperately trying to obtain a special edition crossword puzzle from The Globe and Mail.
It was the Saturday before Christmas, and I was trudging down the poorly plowed Montreal sidewalks toward my nearest Multimags. On arrival, I knocked the snow off my boots outside and swung the door open, a little bell ringing above my head to alert the cashier. Multimags is a Montreal -based chain that sells books, magazines and newspapers. It’s the only store I’ve found in the city that reliably sells The Globe and Mail, with most shops near me solely carrying French-language newspapers.
As I walked in, I was relieved to see that there was a copy of that day’s paper left in the rack. Unfortunately, that relief melted away as a man grabbed the last newspaper for himself and headed toward the cash register. When it comes to potentially awkward interactions with strangers, I’m usually the first to bow out – to accept the wrong drink at a restaurant rather than alerting a waiter to a mistake. But on this occasion, the stakes were too high not to act. Before I could process what I was doing, I was walking up to the cash register where the man had just paid for his newspaper.sorry,” I said, my voice high and nervous. The man turned toward me, the paper tucked under his arm. “I know this is strange, but I’m wondering if there’s any chance I could have just one section of your newspaper?” Before he could answer, I pulled my wallet out of my coat pocket. “I’ll buy it off you, if you want. I just need a few pages.” The man was older – in his 70s or 80s. He furrowed his thick grey brows. My words had come out desperate and quick, and I was now brandishing my wallet in one hand and pointing to the newspaper with the other. But, through some miracle – the magic of Christmas, maybe – the man decided to hear me out. He opened the newspaper and started thumbing through it, laughing lightly, and asking why I needed it so badly. “Every year, on the Saturday before Christmas, The Globe publishes this giant crossword puzzle. It’s become a bit of a tradition for me,” I sai
CHRISTMAS CROSSWORD MONTREAL STRANGER TRADITION
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