Dying woman’s last gift to husband stolen from driveway
Man with disabilities depended on his e-bike to get around
Julie Desbien was three weeks from dying when she used her life savings to buy her doting husband Eugene an e-bike on Sept. 8, so she could see the look on his face.
It was his anniversary gift, 29-year-old Julie told Eugene, just a little early. The two had married on Oct. 4, 2014, but there was no honeymoon. Julie, who used a wheelchair and breathed through a ventilator after a lifetime battle with muscular dystrophy, was hospitalized in December as her health went rapidly downhill.
Though she returned to their home a month later, she was bedridden, and by summer she was in hospice, with Eugene acting as her constant caregiver.
“She spent a lot of that last year thinking of Eugene and how to make it easier for him after she passed,” said Julie’s longtime friend Carol Porter. Julie figured the e-bike would really, really help Eugene, since he couldn’t drive.
“I saw her a few days after (Eugene got the e-bike) and she was just glowing,” said Porter. “She said, ‘I just love him so much and I wanted to take whatever I had and give him that.’ ”
But that gift that mattered so much, to the recipient and the giver, is gone. It was taken last Thursday from the driveway of the home on Elm Avenue the couple moved into one year ago.
Eugene has already lost his wife, on Sept. 29, and now has lost the last gift she gave him, Porter said.
Eugene said he was cussing when he discovered the blue Geo — that cost $1,241 including tax — was taken. He usually takes it right inside, but last Thursday he locked the wheel and ran inside because he had to go to the bathroom, he explained.
When he returned a few minutes later, it was gone.
He’s hoping it will be returned, because he is on a disability pension and doesn’t have the money to replace it. And he’s come to rely on it.
Since September, he put on 1,100 kilometres.
Email porter at carol.porter@bell.net if you can help.
Eugene said he was a “basket case” when Julie died.
Despite her poor health, she was always upbeat and determined. She spent years earning a bachelor’s degree, a bachelor of education and an early-childhood educator diploma, though after several years of looking for a job she came to the realization she hadn’t the strength or stamina to teach. In 2010, she launched a human rights case when she was kicked out of a convenience store by a clerk who took issue with her service dog, and received an apology.
A year ago, she and Eugene were talking about seeing a fertility specialist to help them have a baby, and were planning a honeymoon.
“She was very vibrant and full of life,” said Porter.
Julie and Eugene met in 2012 and soon started dating. That Christmas they got engaged.
“It was really good,” said Eugene, 42, who receives a pension because of physical and learning disabilities.
Porter said they “clicked right from the start.” They were inseparable and never argued.
“Just seeing how much Eugene cared for her, and seeing he was in it for the long haul, we accepted him,” she said.
Eugene said Julie always knew she wouldn’t live a long life. “But you never knew she was in pain because she always had a smile on her face.”