‘My light at the end of the tunnel’

Family, friends grieve for victims of Westlock crash

During his lunch break Thursday, Thomas Larson bought a bouquet of roses and took them home to the apartment he shared with his girlfriend as a surprise for her when she got home from a day trip to Edmonton.

Christine Michaud never saw the roses, nor did she open the card, which read simply, “I love you, babe.”

Instead, an RCMP officer showed up at Larson’s work that afternoon and told him Christine had been killed in a car crash with her four-yearold niece, Hailie, and her oneyear-old nephew, Trent. Her sister-in-law, Eran, and another young nephew were in hospital with serious injuries.

Larson was the first in the family to find out about the crash. He was the one to tell Jeff Michaud that the man’s two children and sister had been killed, and that Jeff’s wife and other son were injured.

Jeff broke the news to friends and family on Facebook later that day.

“(Every time) I think I’m done crying, more tears come,” he wrote.

Larson said the women and children had been going into Edmonton on Thursday to do some banking and other errands. A Facebook update early that morning recorded the beginning of the trip with optimism.

“Well there’s a bit of snow but I think its doable …,” said the message posted on Eran and Jeff Michaud’s Facebook wall, as the spring snowstorm blew into the province. “No road closures so we should be fine …”

Learning about the collision later that day, New Brunswick relative Peter Pelletier said it was hard to comprehend the scope of what had happened.

“I thought it was a nightmare, a dream,” he said. “It was something we didn’t imagine at all.”

Pelletier said Jeff and Eran Michaud moved from Grand Falls, N.B., to Alberta for work last year. Christine Michaud had also left New Brunswick to live in Slave Lake, and met Larson last summer. Hailie lived with her biological mother in New Brunswick, but had been visiting her father in Alberta.

The Michauds’ small Ford car was headed southbound into Edmonton when it was hit head-on by a northbound Dodge truck on Highway 44, about 85 kilometres north of Westlock at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

The driver of the truck, Matthew Darren Kanzig, 46, was also seriously injured in the crash and remains in hospital. He has been charged with three counts of dangerous driving causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, and is to appear in court March 27.

RCMP say highway conditions were poor at the time of the crash, with heavy snow and poor visibility. Other motorists helped at the scene until emergency crews arrived, laying down their coats and blankets for the injured.

Friend Mallory Smith said Christine had a difficult life, but had completely turned her life around, and had a job, an apartment and a great relationship with a man who treated her well. When Christine visited Smith in Prince Edward Island in the fall, Smith said her friend was healthy and happy and in love.

“She struggled so much, and she had finally made a life with someone who loved her, and she was doing very well,” she said. “She had such a bright future. It seemed like everything was just going right. Like everything was coming together.”

In a Facebook posting in January, Christine thanked the people who had supported her as she changed her life. “I’m happy now, and it’s all thanks to you guys,” she wrote.

Many pictures show her with a beaming smile, with Larson at her side.

Larson describes Christine as the love of his life and “the strongest person I’ve ever met,” a shy woman who had overcome great obstacles in her life, and was always there for the people who needed her.

“She was my light at the end of the tunnel,” he said, choking back tears.

The deaths prompted an outpouring of grief from family and friends around the country, as they struggled to come to terms with the extent of the family’s tragedy.

“I cannot even express my thoughts and what you must be going through right now,” one person wrote on Facebook.

“There are no words,” wrote another.

Smith said Christine loved spending time with her niece and nephews, and took tons of photos and videos of them. She described Christine as a loving and caring person, who had a beautiful, infectious laugh.

“Anyone you ask would tell you, ‘She’s one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met,’ ” Smith said. “She’s not a person that you can forget. Ever. She was amazing, so beautiful inside and out. She wasn’t just another person. She was someone really, really special.”

In December, Christine got a tattoo on her wrist: It had the word “hope” inked in delicate script, and the silhouettes of three doves in flight.