Christine Keilback might just have the greatest sense of humour ever.
She laughed off her misfortune after plunging shoulder-deep into a hole in the boulevard near her Winnipeg home in April — a predicament that brought out emergency crews and led to media coverage.
Now she’s getting a howl out of a Halloween costume inspired by it all.
“It’s so lighthearted and it’s such a good spoof on what happened. I mean, how could I not be happy to see that? It’s been fun,” Keilback said.
On Thursday she met Vanessa Desorcy, who was dressed as a Keilback lookalike — from the jacket, hair and eyeglasses right down to a leaf-covered ring at her armpits filling the role as hole.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to meet Vanessa. I’m so glad to have this opportunity, because it made my day,” Keilback said outside her house after embracing Desorcy.
“It was so funny. I laughed and laughed, and it was, it was the best. [Her] attention to detail on the costume, I mean … were we separated at birth? Maybe.”
Keilback maintained her sense of humour even after the earth opened up beneath her. (Submitted by Lynda Regan)
Keilback, 58, was out with friends in the evening of April 25. When they dropped her off at her Wolseley home, she dropped out of sight.
Keilback had stepped into a small hole that suddenly widened and collapsed farther as she fell. She tried to boost herself out, but every foothold crumbled away.
One of her friends ran for a broom and shovel to span the gap and give her a brace to hook her arms around.
“In the beginning I was afraid … because the perimeter of the hole was falling away. So that scared me,” Keilback said, reflecting back.
The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service’s technical rescue task force uses a frame and winch to rescue Keilback. (Submitted by Lynda Regan)
But once she realized she was safe and unhurt, and fire rescue folks were on the way, the absurdity of it all hit.
Keilback posed for pics with her friends before the rescue task force used a frame and winch and straps to lift her out.
In all, she was in the hole for about 40 minutes.
Keilback’s sense of humour about it all radiated across interviews, from local media to international coverage by People.com and the BBC.
The story popped back into Desorcy’s head a few days ago while brainstorming for a Halloween costume for her work party.
“I remember reading the story when it happened, and it just brought me so much joy — of course, as soon as I knew that she was fine. It was amazing, and she had such a good outlook on it,” Desorcy said as Keilback stood by with a beaming smile.
“And so in the last couple of days, it all just came together [as a costume].”
Desorcy, left, shares a laugh with her costume influencer, Keilback. (Randall McKenzie/CBC)
One of her co-workers knew immediately who she was, but a couple others were confused initially, Desorcy said.
“So I crouched down and did the smile and then they got it right away: ‘You’re the woman from the hole,'” she said.
“I love stories like that. They just make hard days feel lighter and they make everything more fun.”
That’s also why Keilback’s story was featured as #TheMoment on CBC’s The National with Adrienne Arsenault shortly after it happened.
“I could not have been happier to have that happen, to have Adrienne Arsenault say your name out loud — and it was for falling in a hole. Like, not for any sort of contribution I made to the community or anything,” Keilback laughed. “I fell in a hole and I was a good sport about it.
“But still, I’ll take it.”
Desorcy wasn’t the only one who found inspiration in Keilback’s amusing misfortune.
Keilback’s next-door neighbour created a Halloween display on the front lawn. It’s a skull and hands coming out of the ground, with broom handles and a sign reading “Help me.”
Keilback chats with emergency workers from a hole in front of her property on Lipton Street in Winnipeg in April. (Submitted by Lynda Regan)
“You gotta love neighbours. This is the best neighbourhood to live in,” Keilback said.
That was the first tribute she saw, and she figured it would be the only one.
“But Vanessa surprised me,” she said.
After some more laughs and another hug, the women offered some advice for those traversing city boulevards and neighbourhoods this weekend.
Neighbours created this Halloween display in tribute to Christine Keilback. (Randall McKenzie/CBC)
“Have a good Halloween and watch out for holes,” Desorcy said.
“Yeah, be safe. Stick to the sidewalk,” Keilback added.
A spokesperson for the City of Winnipeg said the hole was due to a previously removed catch basin and lead.
A catch basin is a drainage structure that collects stormwater runoff and traps debris. The lead is the connecting pipe that transports water from the basin to a main line.
Crews found a similar situation on the opposite side of the road, where a second catch basin would have been located, the spokesperson said at the time.
Winnipegger Christine Keilback found herself in an unusual situation this past April, when she fell through the ground into a hole near her Wolseley-area home. It was a moment so unique, some are bringing it back for Halloween.
