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The Roper family holds vivid memories of the “big snow” event that essentially isolated Dumfries and Galloway from the rest of Scotland. In February 1996, George and Joyce Roper were expecting their third child, who was already overdue by about a week, when severe blizzard conditions arrived. Their remote home near Kirkbean on the Solway Coast made access difficult, and when Joyce went into labor, army personnel had to transport her in a military truck to Dumfries hospital, roughly 12 miles away.
Despite the effort to reach medical care, baby Dean arrived before they could get there, being born in the back of the truck at a layby close to New Abbey. This extraordinary birth quickly attracted media attention across local and national outlets, turning Dean into a minor celebrity. Though 30 years have passed, Dean, now a tyre fitter in Dumfries, expresses some frustration with the recurring attention the story receives each year around his birthday.
Dean shared, “Every year it gets cast up, I’m getting a bit sick of hearing it,” and noted, “I don’t really see what the big deal was. I do try and keep it quiet – so when people start trying to search it up online, I’d rather they didn’t.” His parents, George and Joyce, remain closely connected to this period and recall the intensity of the snowstorm that started on Monday, 5 February. Joyce remembers their “wee farmhouse,” situated off the beaten path near the shore, where they initially underestimated the duration and severity of the snowfall.
The snow that year proved to be the deepest recorded in February for the Dumfries and Galloway area. By the following day, around 2,500 people were taking shelter in emergency centers, many stranded on the A74(M) motorway. A council report described the region as being “effectively cut off from the outside world” over several days. When Joyce’s labor began late on Wednesday night, the situation was grave enough that the local emergency response plan had been activated, bringing in the army to assist those affected. Reflecting on the experience, Joyce commented, “It was quite scary when I discovered that I was going into labour and that I would be on my own to deliver because of the snow.
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