Family Christmas Trip...Ends In Tragedy

On Jan 6th, my beautiful family, (Wife - Rebecca, Daughters - Presley age 10 and Marley age 5) my mother (Wendy) and sister (Jess age 33) were traveling home from a family Christmas trip in Disney (Orlando). We were driving 2 separate cars, Rebecca, Presley, Marley & myself in 1 car and my mother and my little sister, Jess ( 3 months pregnant) in another. We were approximately an hour from Charlotte North Carolina, where we’d be stopping for the night. We never made it there!

We were traveling N on I77 when a drunk driver was traveling South bound on the North bound side of the highway, this is the moment that turned our lives upside down...forever! My wife swerved out of the drunk drivers way, barley missing the car and holding on for control, then it happened! Looking in our review mirror, the driver hit my mom and baby sister head on at approximately 120km/h. I won’t go into those horrific details being first on seen, but you can imagine the destruction & chaos that was created and the out of this world emotion that hit my wife, 2 baby girls and myself. I truly thought they had left us on impact, it was/is an absolute nightmare and something you never think can happen.

They were rushed to a hospital in Columbia South Carolina and this would be my home for the next 3 weeks. My mom and sister were rushed into ER where they started surgeries. My sister, was put on life support for 5 day and after many emotional ups and downs, and with tremendous sadness, we had to say goodbye to my baby sister Jessica, 33yrs old, 3 months pregnant and recently engaged. Jess identified as an organ donor on her Ontario Health Card, so we fulfilled her wishes. We love and miss her beyond words and may they both Rest In Peace. My mom was severely injured in this horrific accident, which I find hard to call an "accident" as this should have NEVER happened, as 1 persons decision to be reckless, effected our whole family, forever.

Physically my mom is recovering well and we are very proud of the strides she has made and the strength she has shown. Emotionally, as she has no recollection of what happened, has come to realize that those were the last moments she would share with her baby girl, and was robbed of the opportunity to meet her beautiful grandchild. She has started the process of healing with these emotions, as you can imagine, this will be forever in her heart. As of this moment, she has been discharged from the hospital but has not been given clearance to travel, so convalescing has to be in close proximity to the hospital. Myself and other family members will be traveling back and forth as she needs constant caregivers and insurance has yet to provide us with a nurse.

As my moms recovery is ongoing and she is still not able to return home, the out of pocket expenses continue grow substantially, and the burden of carrying these worries on top of all the other battles we are endearing, along with no one knowing if, or when, the insurance companies will make us whole again, has been extremely difficulty. The process with insurance companies is beyond explanation.

Many of you have supported us through the joint efforts of The Burlington Dads Facebook group and the Fundraiser that was put on at Joe Dogs (in collaboration with the Burlington Dads, Andrew Irving and Brad Sumak) and we truly appreciate all that you have done.

Any continued support is greatly appreciated, as we all continue to focus on our path of recovery....as recovered as we can be.

In Loving Memory of Jessica Eva Dawson

Please DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE!!