Less than two weeks following the untimely loss of her husband, Emilie Trickett is adjusting to her new normal with her two-and-a-half-year-old son, Austin, who will only know the memory of his doting father.
“I want everyone to know who this amazing guy was,” said Emilie. “He was the first person to offer help and the last person to take it.”
An avid outdoor enthusiast, heavy-duty mechanic and family man, Shaun Trickett succumbed to extensive brain injuries and died, with his wife and family from the U.K. by his side, Feb. 15.
The 31-year-old Cochranite, originally from Coventry, England, was involved in a major vehicle collision on Highway 22 near Highway 8 around 6:15 a.m. Feb. 13 when his car lost control due to extremely poor road conditions and struck another vehicle. The lone occupant of the other car, a male in his 40s, was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Friends quickly learned of the tragedy and came to the aid of their friend – who they knew would need all the support she could get during this difficult time, especially given that the Tricketts had emigrated from the U.K. five years earlier, leaving extended family behind.
Close friends of the couple, Lucy Lovelock and Emma Ashton, set up a Go Fund Me page with the goal to raise as close to $20,000 as possible to help cover the funeral expenses and allow their friend to grieve before resuming her work as a day home provider.
“When you’re filled with grief it’s really hard to talk about money,” said Lucy. “I know what Cochrane is like – it’s such a loving, caring community.”
The anticipated wait time for insurance monies is in excess of six months, offering little comfort for immediate bills and expenses.
By press time, $4,490 had been raised.
Any leftover proceeds would go toward putting up a bench somewhere in the Kananaskis – where Shaun loved to take his family for hiking, quading, skiing or anything that meant spending time in the mountains.
“Knowing the type of person Shaun was, it would have been the first thing he would have done,” said Emma, with reference to the fundraising initiative – adding that it’s a “huge responsibility” for Emilie to carry out her and her late husband’s dream of raising their son in their new home of Canada.
Emma’s husband, Matthew Ashton, delivered a tribute at Shaun’s funeral and referred to his late friend as having a “zest for life” and as “always willing to help others.”
Emilie, who married the “love of her life” at age 19, sits on the edge of the living room couch in the Ashton’s rural home, remembering her husband and reflecting on how her world had been turned upside down with no warning.
“Every day, Shaun would get up and ask me if I had seen the mountains today,” reflected Emilie, adding that she cannot walk by the mountain-view window in her bonus room in Sunset Ridge without replaying that memory.
Emilie shared the irony of the events leading up to Shaun’s fatal accident – that he was supposed to have been in a conference in Seattle that week, which was cancelled the week before, and he had just switched to working the earlier morning shifts in order to afford him more family time.
“There are so many bizarre little things that seemed to put him in that place, that day,” said Emilie, who will miss the spouse who brought her a cup of tea and kissed her on the forehead before leaving for work each morning.
Perhaps the greatest irony is the 911 call Shaun made a mere 10 minutes before his own accident –he made a good Samaritan call to report multiple vehicles along the highway and the extremely poor road conditions.
The funeral was held last Friday and Emilie said she will scatter a portion of Shaun’s ashes in Jasper this May – when she and Austin will spend what would have been their eighth wedding anniversary in “Shaun’s absolute favourite place.”
Emilie expressed her gratitude for the Cochrane community and the “outpouring of support” she and Austin have received.
