A Port Moody man is giving his every breath trying to make sense of the war in Ukraine.
Greg Vaudry, who’s on medical leave from his job as a dock worker in Montreal, is planting blue and yellow balloon flowers along St. Johns Street, one for every child killed in the conflict.
Vaudry said as the news from Ukraine grew increasingly grim, he felt compelled to take some sort of action.
“I could either turn off the news, or I could do something about it.”
So Vaudry turned to a pastime an old friend introduced to him several years ago that he said has helped get him through some tough times before — blowing up and twisting balloons.
“I call it self-medicating,” he said. “I blow them all up old-style; it’s more therapeutic using my own breath rather than a compressor.”
Vaudry, 61, said when his kids, and then his grandkids, were younger, a balloon sculpture brought them comfort.
He previously crafted a colourful balloon garden for his landlord’s veranda, and last winter he constructed a giant candy cane decoration from balloons.
Vaudry hit local party supply shops and dollar stores, buying up all the blue and yellow balloons they had, as well as red and white because he also had a grandparent from Poland, which shares a border with Ukraine and where many of the war’s refugees are seeking shelter from Russia’s shelling. Another grandparent is from Ukraine.
Vaudry said it takes him about 20 minutes to put together a single balloon flower, often while he is watching the news on TV. Sometimes tears well up in his eyes.
“You wouldn’t believe the feelings you get when this kind of stuff happens.”
Vaudry said the images he sees on television remind him of scenes he saw from Vietnam — the first real televised war — when he was much younger.
“We’ve seen this before,” he said.
When Vaudry’s finished a bunch of flowers, he heads out to plant them, often early in the morning or late at night when he can’t sleep.
He hopes people who pass by the balloons pause to reflect on what is happening on the other side of the world.
“It’s my little thing that I figure might open some eyes,” he said.
Since Russian troops and tanks rolled into Ukraine, the United Nations Human Rights Office estimates 46 children have been killed, although Ukrainian officials say the toll is much higher.
Vaudry said if the situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate, he’s afraid he’ll run out of balloons.
And that saddens him greatly.
“I was hoping this war would be over by now,” he said. “I’m not looking forward to what I’ve taken on.”
• Anyone who wishes to support Vaudry's tributes, can purchase balloons in his name, or leave a donation of bamboo sticks, at the It's My Party Shop, 2424 St. Johns St. in Port Moody.
