Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Baby Aurora, born after mom died in crash, is laid to rest

- THIA JAMES tjames@postmedia.com

Aurora Sky Brandi Ledoux, born shortly after her mother was fatally injured by a drunk driver, was laid to rest on Monday.

Aurora, who had dealt with medical problems since birth, recently became ill. Fluid built up in her lungs and on her brain, causing painful pressure that had to be relieved by medication. Her mother’s cousin, Sara Mirasty, reported last Wednesday that a doctor said that day would be the child’s last.

Aurora held on for more than a day, but died at the age of four on Friday.

Aurora was delivered prematurel­y after her mother, Brandy Lepine, and friend Taylor Litwin were involved in a collision with a drunk driver in Prince Albert in July2013.

The other car was driven by Jeremiah Jobb, whose blood alcohol level was found to be about two and a half times the legal limit. He was driving 154 kilometres per hour in a 50 km/h zone. Litwin died, and Lepine was transporte­d to hospital, where she died after Aurora’s birth.

Jobb was sentenced to four years in prison.

On Monday afternoon, family

It was a very hard, difficult day. We were all breaking down off and on all day.

and friends gathered at St. Michael’s Parish in Prince Albert to say goodbye to Aurora.

“It was a very hard, difficult day. We were all breaking down off and on all day,” Mirasty told the StarPhoeni­x in a message on Monday after the funeral service.

Lepine’s mother and Mirasty’s aunt, Josephine Ledoux, had been Aurora’s primary caregivers since birth. Mirasty wrote that the two were joined at the hip, always with each other. At the service, Mirasty said her aunt told her granddaugh­ter to fly away home to her mother and sing and dance with her.

“She was such a beautiful, happy little girl who loved to sit by her grandma Josie while she played games,” Mirasty said of Aurora. When Ledoux played PS4 video games, her granddaugh­ter was her video game “partner.”

“I will miss everything about her. I miss her every single second, minute, every hour that goes by ... she was the most innocent beautiful girl anybody could ever know. She loved everyone,” Mirasty said.

 ?? PHOTO BY SARA MIRASTY. ?? Aurora Sky Brandi Ledoux, who died Friday at the age of four, “was such a beautiful, happy little girl,” said her mother’s cousin Sara Mirasty.
PHOTO BY SARA MIRASTY. Aurora Sky Brandi Ledoux, who died Friday at the age of four, “was such a beautiful, happy little girl,” said her mother’s cousin Sara Mirasty.

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