‘Tis the season of giving and here, at TransLink, we wanted to take care of a deserving commuter’s transit fare for the month of January! (Yeah, we’re not WestJet or Air Canada, we couldn’t bring Christmas to the Dominican Republic or provide round-trip airfare home for the holidays.)

We put out a call for nominations in our Secret Santa contest and we heard over 40 stories about amazing people doing amazing things for their community and the people around them. Shareena Ali nominated her mother, Sabra Ali:

She is the strongest women I know. She works three jobs and is almost 60 years old yet she is still a hard worker and she never rests. She always wakes up early to cook and clean. She takes care of my father, who just had a heart attack. Then goes to work to take care of her patients. She takes care of her three grandchildren on her days off when she gets them, but always accepts work whenever her work is short staffed. She also takes care of 90 per cent of the household bills due to my father’s heart attack and my car accident which resulted in a broken neck for 6 months and off work for a year.

Her commute is a bit longer than before, an extra 45 minutes to an hour due to us moving farther away from King George Station. She walks and takes transit in all types of weather conditions. She doesn’t have her license, so she has been relying on transit all her life. She always cares for others before her own needs and still manages to smile and look at the brighter things in life. Her birthday is three days before Christmas, so if she gets this, it would be a two-in-one gift.

—Shareena Ali

The TransLink Secret Santa Elves agreed, she deserved a FareCard and a TravelSmart pack after receiving an 11 out of 11 on her scoresheet from the judges! We decided we would send Sabra her prize. NAH, THAT’S NO FUN!

Let’s surprise Sabra on her commute home with a film crew and Shareena! Ah, much better plan. (‘:

From all of us at TransLink and our operating companies – Coast Mountain Bus Company, British Columbia Rapid Transit Company and Transit Police, we wish the Ali family happy holidays and an early happy birthday to Sabra!

Author: Allen Tung