Cynthia Reyes.Photo: Jon Reyes/Twitter
A Canadian lawmaker’s wife is speaking out after he faced social media backlash for sharing a photo of her shoveling snow after a 12-hour shift at her job, with some questioning why the politician was inside while his wife did the dirty work.
“Even after a 12 hour night shift at the hospital last night, my wife still has the energy to shovel the driveway. God bless her and all our frontliners,” Reyes, a member of Manitoba’s legislative assembly, wrote. “Time to make her some breakfast.”
The tweet quickly went viral — for the wrong reasons, with many users mocking it in their responses.
“Did she fix ye a drink before she started shoveling?” askedone. “I never let my wife start snow shoveling till she fixes me a proper Saturday drink.”
“To everyone saying ‘maybe she wanted to’ I can more than assure you nobody wants to be outside today. With wind chill it’s -30,” wroteanother.
Jon Reyes' wife, however, said she did want to be outside, writing a lengthy post on Facebook Monday in which she said it had been “a whirlwind of a weekend!”
“Who would have known that my husband’s tweet about me shoveling our driveway after my nightshift would have gone viral?” Cynthia wrote, adding that she and her husband had declined multiple media requests stemming from the photo.
“What people should know is that I came home from a 12 hour night shift from the hospital, it was a good night which lately as you can imagine hasn’t always been the case for myself and my Nursing colleagues,” she wrote. “As I drove home, it’s my time to decompress, I arrived home before anyone was awake, after all it was a Saturday morning.”
Jon Reyes.Jon Reyes/Twitter
Cynthia continued: “As I pulled up to my driveway, I felt energy to shovel the snow that fell all night and into the morning. As many Manitobans and Canadians know, it’s a great workout, it allowed me to unwind, it’s refreshing after having worn an N95 mask almost the entire night, the weather was mild and it was quiet and peaceful … Most importantly, I enjoy it.”
Any claims of sexism, Cynthia said, were unfounded as she and Jon “share different chores not based on any gender; but mostly on who is available to do it … It’s the way we roll.”
Had the roles been reversed — with her husband shoveling the snow instead of her — Cynthia said she believes the photo would not have gone viral.
In her Facebook post, she urged readers not to believe everything they hear on social media, to “read past the headline” and “know the whole story before passing judgment.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, Jon said: “My wife is amazing, both at home and at work. I’m eternally grateful for her and everything she does. I love her very much.”
He continued: “I’m happy that she is getting the worldwide recognition she deserves, and it serves as a reminder to everyone — especially me today — that we can never do enough to show our gratitude to healthcare workers.”
source: people.com
