91-year-old Kitchener woman to attend first Leafs game in 70 years, thanks to grandson and Leafs organization
Posted Mar 31, 2015 11:28:15 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Thanks to the power of twitter, the generosity of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization and the love of a grandson, today is a truly remarkable one for an elderly Kitchener woman.
The grandson is David Allan. He recently tweeted a photo of his beloved grandmother, Aggie Coulas, wearing a Leafs jersey, with the message “This is my 91-year-old grandmother. She never misses a game. We be-Leaf.”
The Leafs organization saw the tweet, reached out to David and arranged to have Aggie picked up Tuesday afternoon by Leafs’ legend Johnny Bower and escorted to the Leafs game at the Air Canada Centre.
Allan says it’s a surprise for Aggie. “I don’t know if she’s going to act like a teenager again or if she’s going to be really angry with me. I’m not a hundred per cent sure how it’s going to go. I think either way it’s going to be incredibly exciting. They’re sending a car with one of their p.r. people and Johnny Bower. They’re going to pick us up. This is all a huge surprise. Gran has no idea this is happening. So Johnny’s going to show up at the door.”
The last time Aggie attended a Leafs game was in the late 1940s – the club was in the midst of winning four Stanley Cups in five seasons, including three in a row from 1947 to 1949, led by captain Syl Apps and back-stopped by Turk Broda.
Says Allan, “That was her very first Leafs experience. There wasn’t TV back then, she didn’t have TV back then. So that was her first introduction to the Leafs. That was her first and last Leafs game.”
And so tonight, after visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame and having dinner with Bower in the Leafs alumni lounge, Aggie will watch her cherished Maple Leafs for the first time since attending her one and only Leafs game, back when the now 91-year-old Howie Meeker was a rookie.
