A great loss
Pictou County mourns the loss of Daniel Arsenault
Daniel Arsenault is being remembered as a young man with great character who, despite his limitations, had a positive outlook on life and brought joy to others.
Lynn Arsenault says her son Daniel was her strength — an earth angel.
Now her angel is looking down from above.
Lynn recalled the day she first found out her son had muscular dystrophy. As a nurse she’d noticed he seemed to be going to the bathroom a lot. She suspected diabetes. The diagnosis they would receive in Halifax came as a complete shock.
They knew it meant a shortened life and many challenges ahead. Broken by the news, Daniel’s father Kenny had a heart attack on the way home from the hospital. A few months later, Lynn would be diagnosed with breast cancer.
Despite the challenges, they discovered with the help of their son, there was still joy in every situation.
Trenton’s Daniel Arsenault passed away at the age of 18, leaving hundreds in Pictou County who knew him to mourn.
Lynn confirmed Daniel passed away on Friday, Dec. 7, suddenly from what are believed to be complications associated with muscular dystrophy, a disease he was diagnosed with as a young child. His death came without warning and they believe it was caused by an embolism.
But, as Daniel taught them to do through the way he approached so many of the trials in his life, the Arsenaults were focused on the positive Saturday. They spoke of the joy the young man brought to their life and the lives of so many others he encountered.
“Daniel had such a positive outlook. He always found the good in things,” Lynn said.
She described one day going through some clothes with Daniel that he had outgrown, including some socks and shoes.
“What should we do with these old ones,” she asked.
He suggested they give them away to someone else who could use them.
“You can tell them they’re barely used because I don’t even walk,” Daniel said of the shoes.
He was a person who could see the positive, even while confined to a wheelchair.
“He was never a child that was down on life,” she said. “The way he faced the world was unbelievable, too, in the face of adversity.”
For someone who had every reason to be discouraged, he seemed to naturally choose to smile instead.
“He may have had weakness in muscle, but he had strength in character,” Lynn said. “He brought the light to people with a smile. It just filled the room.”
Something else that always stood out to her, is how he never thought about himself. She recalls how he’d ask, when they were opening their Christmas presents, “Did we remember to give a gift to the needy kids?”
In her own life, Lynn found him to be her strength.
“If I was ever having a bad day, all I had to do was to look to Daniel for my inner strength. It made me realize to not sweat the small things.”
He helped her realize the important things: loving family, loving friends and making memories.
And that’s something they did to the fullest.
Hockey was one of Daniel’s greatest loves. Locally, he was one of the Weeks Jr. A Crushers most loyal fans. In the NHL, the Toronto Maple Leafs were his team and he was to be buried wearing a Maple Leafs jersey.
Christopher Cameron, a former sports reporter with The News, remembers talking regularly with Daniel.
“Covering a Weeks Crushers’ game routinely included a pregame chat with Daniel, asking him his thoughts on how the game was going to go and what he thought of the team in recent games,” he said. “There were very few people in that arena that cared as much as Daniel about the Crushers or knew the roster the way he did. You could tell from the smile on his face and the way he talked about the team that it was one of his favourite things to do, especially with his dad.”
Cameron said what stood out to him was how much he loved the team and how genuinely happy it made him.
“He was always smiling at every game and never missed warm-up or a minute of the game. I’m sure it wasn’t the only place he was happy, but it was definitely one of his ‘happy places.’”
Daniel was also interested in firefighting and looked up to his father Kenny, who is a firefighter. He was a regular part of the local fire department’s boot drives for Muscular Dystrophy Canada.
He became a poster boy for the muscular dystrophy campaigns, helping to fight against the illness that would ultimately claim his life.
As people reflect on Daniel’s life, Lynn hopes they will try to learn from the way Daniel lived and enjoy their time with loved ones.
“Tomorrow is never promised,” she said.
Donations may be made in memory of Daniel to Muscular Dystrophy Canada or The Children’s Wish Foundation.