You can see it in his face. By his smile. By his laugh. By the way he talks.
Wayne McFadden is happy.
One week ago, McFadden and his canine best friend Singer lived in a tent on the bank of the Penticton channel. Before that, it was an old truck. Then Penticton emergency shelter Compass House.
They were broke and they had little to look forward to each morning aside from each other's company. And Singer had a lump the size of a soccer ball on her left hip.
Today, McFadden and Singer have a comfortable room in a Penticton motel. There's a bed with a real mattress. And a bathroom. And in the corner a TV that's tuned to a Seinfeld rerun.
Singer still has that lump, but it's in the process of being analyzed, and hopefully healed, paid in full by animal rescue organization Critteraid.
But the biggest development of all -- the one that has the nomadic McFadden looking and acting like a new person -- is the almost certain prospect that within days the pair will have a motorhome.
That McFadden's and Singer's world looks so different today can be attributed to a group of five Penticton-area women (Kim Cameron, Lois Wager, Christine Butler, Sunnie Waters and Sue Kaminski and family) who've taken him under their wing, and all the folks who've chipped in since they set up a gofundme page just a week ago.
The initial goal was to raise $9,000 for an older Class C motorhome. Instead, they've amassed $17,000-plus as of this writing -- enough for a substantial upgrade.
And Monday morning, that upgrade took a huge leap toward reality.
"Over the weekend," said Penticton nurse Cameron, "we went looking for motorhomes. And one came up yesterday in Summerland that seemed really interesting. It's this great big beautiful Winnebago. It was $12,000.
"So Lois (Wager) and Wayne went out this morning and took a look through it. And he fell in love with it."
We'll let McFadden himself take it from there.
"It was wonderful," he said while sitting, quite comfortably, on his motel bed. "It runs good and it has brand new tires on it. It’s a strong motor -- it started right up.
"The beds in the back are comfortable, and the exhaust is good. And it's clean. Really clean."
So Monday afternoon, Cameron did the deed -- sending a $750 deposit to the current owner.
"I sent the deposit to Brad, the owner, and the paperwork was written up. He's a real good guy. We can’t access the rest of the gofundme money until it’s all verified, but he said he was okay with accepting two bank drafts for the remainder.
"I think it'll all be sealed up in five to six days."
"I thought it was a pretty good idea," said Winnebago owner Brad. "Getting the two of them a home on wheels. He and his dog living in strange places, why not get them something cool to hang out in?
"So I thought yeah, I don't mind waiting for the money."
The motorhome, a 1992 Winnebago Brave, has just 127,000 kilometers on the clock and, according to Brad, who’s owned it for eight years, is a winner.
"He'll get some good miles out of it, for sure. It's got a good, strong motor, like-new tires, and for its age the interior and exterior have done really well.
"I'm telling people now, sorry, it's going to a guy who needs it more than you," he laughed.
McFadden readily admitted he's in a "daze."
"They’re angels," he said of his five female saviours. "And God's just come right in here and taken over. It's blown all of us away."
McFadden talks about a ranch in Kelowna where the he can perhaps again visit the horses he loves so much.
And he's already named the motorhome. He's called it "Brave Bessie."
"'Brave because that's what it says on the side and 'Bessie' because that's what my grandpa said when he tied to get his tractor going. 'C'mon Bessie!'"
And just yesterday, according to Cameron, the McFadden and Singer saga got another big boost when yet one more benevolent soul rode to the rescue.
"Wayne stayed Friday at the Best Western," she said. "Then we got him three nights at the new motel. Then yesterday, this lady -- we know her first name is Christine but we don’t know anything else -- went to the motel and paid for him to stay all the way through to Saturday.
"It was just fantastic. I wish we knew her last name."
Thus far, all accommodations have been funded either by the quintet or the mostly-anonymous good samaritan. But if enough gofundme bucks don't show up by Saturday, Cameron said she may ask donors if they're okay if some of their money goes to a few extra days.
"It's an amazing time," said McFadden, laughing and sitting between two of his new best buddies. "It's just so hard to believe."
The "Help Wayne and Singer" gofundme page can be found here.
