How a woman reunited with her rescuer 29 years after collision with moose

After a four-month search, a Halifax woman's rescuer has come forward to say he was the one who helped save her life after the car she was in hit a moose in northern New Brunswick 29 years ago.

Lisa Richard, a Halifax-based musician, told Maritime Noon in October she was searching for the first responders who helped her on the night of Nov. 10, 1989 when she was travelling home with friends on a road between Bathurst and Miramichi.

She was a passenger and remembers bending down to pick up a cassette tape from the floor, but remembers nothing of the crash.

While recently playing a show in Moncton, someone suggested she reach out to Lloyd Harquail of Dieppe.

Friends thought she was dead

Harquail, a university student and volunteer firefighter at the time, was travelling from Fredericton and stopped after others waved him down.

Richard was unresponsive and crushed in the car. Her friends thought she had died, she said.

"I remember that quite vividly, that it was just an awful thing to see," said Harquail.

Richard said she knew Harquail was there that night, but she thought he was a bystander, not the man who saved her life.

Paramedics later took her to hospital in Bathurst. 

Inspired to become first responder

Harquail believes the events of that night played a part in his decision to become a paramedic, and later a police officer.

"I'm just so happy for Lisa, and grateful that she's so grateful, because a lot of times people in that industry of first responders — police, fire and ambulance — they don't get to get that thanks afterwards," he said.

Richard's search began after she released a song called Uniform. It was inspired by what happened that night.

"I said I need to stop and thank people that have come into my life that have allowed me to get to where I am," she said.

Heartfelt reunion

The pair recently reunited.

"It was great to see her," said Harquail. "I recognized her right away. Almost immediately her eyes kinda filled with tears. Again it's so heartening to see someone that's truly appreciative."

Richard said it was like meeting a long-lost brother.

"I'm completely grateful to him, I owe him my life," she said.

With files from Maritime Noon.