About four weeks ago, Province readers were introduced to Laura
Powell, a single mother of two young children who was trying her best
to keep things together during the holidays.

In addition to a derelict balcony that had been deemed unsafe to walk on, the New
Westminster mother, who battles bipolar disorder and carries around a chest full of less-than-rosy childhood memories, was in the midst of an ongoing war with bed bugs.

The infestation left her and her six-year-old daughter and four-month old son sleeping on the living-room floor.

With a bank account bordering on the red, the 38-year-old said she would be turning to the New Westminster Christmas Bureau for help during the holidays — help she wasn’t likely going to get from either
of her kids’ dads.

Well, the help came flooding in. After Powell’s story ran, she was contacted by the Christmas bureau and told
there were several families who were willing to sponsor her during the holidays.

On top of being showered with gifts to put under the tree, a bed bug company by the name of Baked Bed Bugs offered to fumigate her apartment free of charge.

“He is one of the nicest men I have ever met in my whole life,” she said of the owner of Baked
Bed Bugs. “We are wonderfully happy. I’m just so pleased.” After having just about all her Christmas wishes answered — although she was unable to visit her family due to the snow — Powell is looking forward to the
new year. She hopes to move to a new apartment soon.

“I figure all I need now is a three- bedroom apartment and a good man. But the good man can come later.”