Bathurst tragedy from a transplanted Monctonians perspective
I rarely watch the news. On Saturday January 12th before heading to the Dieppe market and waiting for my girlfriend to get ready I sat down and turned on the television. After two clicks I landed on a news channel and saw a Bathurst headline.
Since I’m originally from the Bathurst area it immediately drew my attention. It felt unreal, like an episode of cops. The more I heard about it the less I believed it. Unfortunately it didn’t make it less real. 7 kids and 1 mother and wife were killed in a head on collision with a tractor trailer. How’s that for reality? Painfully real.
My first reflex was to call my mother to find out if there was anybody we knew. Somehow it would make me feel better. Mothers have that appeasing quality that is so precious.
To keep on keeping on, we ended up going to the Market with my brother and his girlfriend. The conversation was light and you could hear murmurs of Bathurst and the accident all over the market. “This is a tragedy”, “I can’t believe so many…dead.”
Bathurst is a small community with 2 degrees of separation. If you’re from there you’re bound to know someone that knows 1 of the 8 victims. That makes it hard on more people but at the same time easier because in a small community like Bathurst you end up getting real support from people who truly care.
I wish the best to all the families and friends that have lost a person dear to them.
