‘DADS SHOULDN’T DIE, JUST GOING TO WORK. IT JUST ISN’T RIGHT’
Apr. 28 ‘special day of remembrance’ for family of worker killed on job
Knowing his employer would be shuttering the warehouse and putting him out of a job soon, Sam Kuris was clocking as many hours as he could.
He tried to stay positive. Sam was determined that no matter what, he would give his wife and three young children the trip to Disneyland in California he had promised them.
Sam was born in Glozan in what is now Serbia. At age three, he immigrated to Windsor with his parents and sister. He later studied drilling and blasting at Sir Sandford Fleming College, School of Natural Resources in Lindsay, where he fell in love with student Shelly Rickerby.
Always curious about western Canada, Sam saved his money for a year and in 1993 drove to British Columbia with his college sweetheart in their old pickup truck. The couple settled in Maple Ridge, married in 1997 and gave birth to Jack in 1999. Daughter Silver arrived four years later, followed by son Liam in 2006.
Sam commuted to South Burnaby where he worked as a forklift driver in the Canada Safeway warehouse. His wife stayed home to care for the children in their tight-knit adopted community.
On the morning of Jan. 22, 2011, Sam and another forklift driver were the only two workers in the warehouse. They were asked to dismantle a heavy-duty shrinkwrapping machine that was originally installed by crane.
The workers used two forklifts to try to move machinery sections. One piece of equipment shifted, causing Sam’s forklift to spin and topple. He was thrown from his cab and crushed to death. Sam was 39. His family was devastated. Sam’s wife forced herself to function, knowing their kids, ranging from age four to 11, were counting on her.
“When you have children, you can’t crawl under the covers and not come out,” Shelly says.
Since Sam died on the job, a Work Safe survivor’s pension helped financially. “It allowed me to focus on taking good care of the kids,” Shelly says.
The community revealed its big heart. One family placed dinner on the Kuris’s front porch for six weeks. The family’s church completed a major restoration of their home.
And the autumn after Sam died, Shelly and the children went to Disneyland, through the consideration of their church family.
To help deal with their grief, the children went to counseling.
“It was hard for them – hard with all the first holidays without him, and the certain things that happen with dads. He isn’t here to do that and it’s very emotional,” Shelly says.
Appreciating her young ones’ loss, she says, “I don’t let the kids use that as an excuse to feel sorry for themselves. I say, ‘You do have a dad and he’s watching over you. You need to be the best that you can be.’”
April 28, the National Day of Mourning, became “the special day we set aside to remember their dad,” Shelly says. Since Sam’s death in 2011, the family has traveled to Vancouver several times to attend the annual ceremony.
Reflecting on what she would tell employers or government officials if given the opportunity, Silver says, “They should try to make sure everyone is safe and the equipment is fine. But that accidents happen.”
With Sam’s family in the Windsor area and Kuris’s own also in Ontario, Shelly felt compelled to bring her children back home in 2015. It was difficult leaving the caring community she had known for over 20 years. The family now lives a block from Kuris’ twin sister in Whitby.
Shelly is at school, studying nursing so she can better provide for her kids. She received great encouragement and understanding from her mother, who herself became a young widow when her husband died of a heart attack at age 47 and had to go to work to support the family.
The Kurises will be joining Sam’s family for the Windsor and District Labour Council’s National Day of Mourning ceremony Friday, Apr. 28. It begins at 5 p.m. at St. Augustine of Canterbury Anglican Church at 5145 Wyandotte St. E., Windsor.
Silver will be reading from a poem she wrote about her father at the service.
“I always call him my knight in shining armour. Sam was my soul mate,” Shelly says. “It really was unfair what happened. But some people go through life and they don’t ever find that person. So I felt very blessed to have that true love and relationship.
“He left me three little pieces of him to take care of. When I get sad, I think of that.”