Ben needs our help.

Hello and thank you for taking your time to read this. My name is Andrew Tucker and my partner of 7/fiance of 3 years is Benjamin Hobson.

For the last year or so Ben has been working at our local grocery store sometime after covid set in on the world in 2020. Prior to that we were raising sheep on our property but ultimately had to sell them due to covid. That's when Ben got the new job. Since moving around to different departments within the store he made a lasting impression on the people who knew him, which for ben came natural. Kindness flows through him with ease, he is understanding and always there for others. Always going out of his way to put others first or bottle up his own feelings so he is able to deal with someone else's first. A huge lover of animals and knitting he is a very easy going, down to earth kind of person.

While working at his job he quickly moved up to work in the bakery department, which he was a natural at anyway. Even before he got the position he went through a phase of trying to bake the best sour dough, or best oatmeal cookies. During this time he was walking to and from work everyday. Even in the winter instead of getting a ride he bought himself a heated winter jacket to keep him warm and multiple underlayers so he could keep up the walking even in well below freezing temperatures. The walk to his work is about 20-25 minutes roughly and a quarter of this walk is down a dirt road with no sidewalks, or streetlights as we live on an acreage renting the basement apartment.

Unfortunately on Friday January 14th. Just over a week after his 41st birthday, he was walking his usual walk because I was running late at work and wasn't able to pick him up like I said I could earlier, he was struck by an SUV going 50 or so km/h. He was struck from behind while walking on the side of the road. Both him and the driver were heading east both on the right side of the road. They hit him from behind, hitting mostly his left side as that's where majority of his damage is. He was airlifted to the hospital by 645 or 7 with life threatening injuries. From the accident he has a broken leg in several different spots, a fractured pelvis, broken ribs on both sides of his body, a punctured lung, and a head injury spanning above his eyebrow, down the side of his face that is stapled shut, and another cut that goes from under the first cut into his ear lobe and some bleeding in his brain.

At 5:20 I received a text from him saying he was on his way home, around 545 stars rescue helicopter was dispatched to airlift him to hospital. Around 625 the rnc answered Ben's phone while I was calling just before going to drive down to the scene myself as I saw there was an ambulance down the road and another vehicle when I got home around 6.

He is now in the icu, he has another punctured lung from his ribs being broken and jagged so he is on a respirator and a tube in each lung to help I'm breathe. They keep testing his brain function /activity to make sure he isn't brain dead or anything and keep bringing him out of sedation to get him to respond to commands like thumbs up or putnup 2 fingers and the like. Today he started to respond a little. He has since gone into surgery for his leg which will have a rod put in. It's looking like he will be in the hospital for a long time. Myself and his mother are going to have to pay a lot for parking, and gas to see him as much as possible during this time, he is going to need physio therapy to help recover, he also will not be working and while he will be on short term disability eventually we will need to pay rent and bills as well as anything he needs that we don't have since he's going to be wheel bound fir awhile. His heated winter jacket and headphones were destroyed in the accident and I'm hoping to replace those as well. This is all depending how everything goes legally. We also need to pay a lawyer.

I'm personally so glad that he and I between us have such great supportive friends and family members. We have definitely connected with many fantastic people. If you know Ben or myself you know we are humble people and never want to has for help or ask for anything outside our means. I personally am not comfortable asking much if anyone for help except my parents and I know if I asked them for what we need to get through this we'd all be bankrupt. All my life I have tried to not ask for too much, not expect much in return from others but always have wanted to help and be there for people in troubling times and I know that Ben is the same type of person. I don't think I could have ever fallen for someone who isn't as humble as myself though I think he can be even more than I. But after a long pondering of what to do especially where I have so many people asking me to come to them for help as well as me not ever wanting to actually ask for that help as I feel selfish or it comes off in a different light, but this is probably the most important time for me to push my pride away and ask for help. I have so many asking and this is a good start. We are going to need financial help and I know that I will have a hard time being comfortable enough to actually reach out to others to be able to to ask for things and I know while my parents and his are absolute superhero award winning parents, we aren't going to be able to do all of this ourselves.

As of writing this as well I have gotten a call back from the hospital and he just got out of surgery for his leg and is doing fine.

I appreciate everything, everyone has done for us so far. This isn't easy and having people being supportive is making things less difficult than they could be. All the food offers, dog watching offers, car rides, places to stay, everything. It all means so much to me and I know Ben if he was awake and able to thank you he would. We all just have to take this day by day and hope for the absolute best outcome. He has a long road to recovery ahead of him but I'm hopeful he will make it.

Please don't feel the need to donate too much, just what you can. Don't feel obligated either. I understand it's been a hard few years for all of us. I am making this so people can have an outlet to offer help if they really want to since I'm going to keep saying I'm fine until we aren't. I just really appreciate everyone's concern, support, love and thoughts.

https://www.canadapolicereport.ca/2022/01/17/strathmore-rcmp-responds-to-vehicle-vs-pedestrian-collision-east-of-langdon-alberta/