Woman's death still a mystery
Grieving family, five-month-old son left behind after tragic incident
A five-month-old boy has lost his mother, following a recent tragic incident that has left the family and friends of 31-year-old Amanda Lowe hurt, grieving and upset.
“Brantley was her everything,” says Amanda's mother, Janet Lowe. “She wanted that baby so bad.”
Amanda's partner and Brantley's father, Mathieu Larabie, agrees, noting that the home he shared with Amanda is filled with photos of their family, including his fiveyear-old son Ayden, from a previous marriage.
“She was always there for me,” he adds. “She had a big heart, and was sweet and genuine and caring. We would just sit down and talk all the time, about anything and everything.
“She was my best friend.” Amanda died on Sept. 20, while driving from her home in Edwards, near Metcalfe, to sister Ashley Lowe's house in Calabogie.
Brantley had stayed there overnight so Amanda and Mathieu could spend Saturday night enjoying a neighbour's bonfire party without worrying about their son.
But something happened to Amanda along the drive, something that caused her to pull her car over onto the shoulder of Highway 417, near Kinburn Side Road close to Arnprior, and put on her four-way flashers.
The coroner has not yet determined the cause of death, pending a pathologist's examination of her heart. According to her family, though, Amanda was diagnosed in her teens with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the heart's electrical system, often resulting in light-headedness, a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath and dizzy spells. In very rare cases, cardiac arrest can occur.
She showed no further symptoms until a couple of years ago, when she experienced a couple of bouts of light-headedness and dizziness.
Ashley had expected her sister to arrive at about 1:30 that afternoon, and when Amanda failed to show up and didn't respond to calls and texts, police were notified.
A ping to her phone indicated she was 17 kilometres from the Arnprior cell tower.
Mathieu, who had gone out in search of her, was the first to find her body, still in her car, at around 7:30 p.m.
“I told her I was going to find her, and so I did.”
Ashley and Janet, meanwhile, wonder how many people drove
past Amanda's car that afternoon.
“Not a single person stopped, not a single cop went by,” says Ashley.
Amanda and Mathieu had been seeing one another for about threeand-a-half years, after meeting on an online dating site.
Mathieu, now 34 and a mason, had sent her a message, and she replied with a photo of herself.
The picture surprised him: the two had grown up in the same neighbourhood in Edwards.
“I said, `Holy geez, I know you!' recalls Mathieu. “We went out on a date and the rest was history.”
Brantley Ross Larabie was born shortly after 5 a.m. on April 1 at the Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, Mathieu was the only family member allowed in the delivery room, and due to the uncertain nature of the pandemic at the time, it was a month before other family members could visit him in person.
“My first grandson,” says Janet, “and I couldn't be with him.”
“He was an April Fool's baby,” recalls Ashley.
“Even her work thought it was a joke because Amanda, being Amanda, brought her makeup bag with her to the hospital, had the baby, and within two hours was fully dressed, with makeup, on a work conference call. They didn't believe she just had a baby.”
Amanda worked in the offices of ASL Construction in Osgoode.
A rugby player in her days at Osgoode Township High School, Amanda was a country music fan and fishing enthusiast who often competed with her sister in numerous mud races.
She also loved being with her father, Ross, who, a retired trucker, spent a lot of time with Brantley and Amanda.
She was also shy, says Janet. “But when she got to know you, man, she was a true friend. She was the most kind-hearted person. Everybody loved her.”
While on maternity leave, Amanda spent most of her time with her son, whether it was apple-picking, playing in their kiddie pool, wandering through a nearby produce farm, going to the beach with him and her sister, or just lying outside on a blanket.
Just a week before her death, she started taking swimming lessons with Brantley.
A funeral will be held at a later date, when COVID-19 restrictions allow for larger gatherings. Meanwhile, a pair of GoFundMe pages have been set up, one by Mathieu's cousin to help him with expenses, and another by Ashley, to help augment an education fund that was set up by Janet when Brantley was born.