Mother, two kids killed in fire remembered
OSHAWA -- Lindsey Bonchek’s life wasn’t always easy, but her family is remembering her as a fighter who’d do anything to take care of her three kids.
Bonchek, her nine-year-old daughter Madeline and fouryear-old son Jackson were three out of four victims of a blaze that tore through an Oshawa home on Monday morning. Bonchek’s son Ben – a teenager with special needs – was the only member of the family to survive.
Bonchek had loved her kids ferociously, according to her cousin Rachel Honsberger, who spoke about the “uncommonly generous” single mother on Tuesday afternoon.
“She did not have very much, but if you needed something, she was there. Be it her time and energy or her assistance, she was always willing to help,” Honsberger said. As the oldest of her siblings and among the oldest of her cousins, Bonchek was “really our pack leader,” Honsberger added. Bonchek was a peacemaker, brought the family together, and took care of everyone.
She’d become a mother to Ben when she was still young herself, and parenting a child with disabilities wasn’t always a simple path. “Finding resources and money to take care of children with special needs, it’s not always easy. It’s very tough,” Honsberger said.
“But she really did the best with what she had, and that’s the thing about Lindsey: she wasn’t a quitter. She really was a devoted mom. She loved those kids … I have no doubt that she died trying to save her kids from that awful fate.”
In the wake of the tragedy, Ben has been left without his mother and siblings. “Ben has been left alone, with only the shirt on his back, and will require some form of care for the rest of his life,” a GoFundMe page set up by the family to cover funeral expenses and care costs reads.
Since the fire, the family has also been recalling memories of Maddie and Jackson.
“Maddie was the only girl, but she was very much an outgoing child,” Honsberger said, adding that she was “a little ray of sunshine” for everyone who knew her – but especially for her family.
“She was popular, she was brilliant at math - she was always doing math in her spare time, like what kid does that? What nine year old does that? But she loved it!”
Beyond numbers, the nineyear-old also had “a very artsy side,” Honsberger said. “She was a great artist, and she inherited that from my aunt, her grandmother. She was in the choir. So she was just one of those all-around kids.” She said teachers and parents of other kids have been reaching out to the family since Monday, telling them how much Maddie will be missed.
“And how much happiness she brought to the life of other people even though she was so young,” Honsberger added. Talking about Jackson, 4, she called him a sweet little boy.
“He loved his mummy,” Honsberger said. “He was in the same school as Maddie … I hear he was a great student. He was a good sharer, you know? All those things that are important when you’re four years old.”
The kids had started to spend time at the family cottage in Haliburton, on the water in paddleboats and running around on the shores. Lindsey’s parents – the kids’ grandparents – adored that time together, Honsberger said.
Katrina Marie Ferguson, who has known Bonchek since high school, remembers Bonchek’s patience with Ben – and said that Jackson and Maddie were taught to do the same. “She did a really good job at making sure that Maddie and Jackson knew that there are things that are different about Ben, but it’s not like they ever treated him any differently.”