Mpby

Paulette hastily made her way to the car, but instead of going to the
passenger’s side, Paulette came over to the driver’s side of the car.
She spoke to her mother through the car window; Paulette asked her
mother, “Can I drive?” (She had recently received her beginner’s
permit). Velda agreed to let Paulette drive. These few brief words
would be the last ones exchanged between the two.

Paulette drove the car cautiously to the end of the entrance of
the school. She brought the car to a complete stop. There was a
slow moving vehicle on the highway traveling West, approaching the
school entrance. Paulette calculated the time it would take to
maneuver the car into the right-hand lane of the highway. She had
lots of time to pull out from the entrance, and unto the highway
before the slow moving vehicle reached the school entrance.

What Paulette had not noticed was a second vehicle behind the
slow moving one - the driver of a truck was passing the slow
moving vehicle at the same time as Paulette was entering the
highway. The larger, slow moving vehicle obscured the view, and
neither the driver of the truck nor Paulette had seen each other until
they hit ‘head on’. It happened in a matter of seconds.

Paulette was killed instantly, Velda critically injured, and the
driver of the truck was uninjured but no doubt badly traumatized
from the accident. Both Velda and Paulette were taken to the
Western Hospital. From there, Velda was rushed to Prince County
Hospital, and then to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she stayed
in intensive care for several days, in a state of shock. She had a
collapsed lung and other internal injuries.

Un Ange a passé (an angel has passed): Paulette was
pronounced ‘dead on arrival’, at the Western Hospital.

Paulette’s death had been so sudden and tragic; the family
mourned in disbelief - it seemed like a nightmare. The Bernard
children embraced each other in tears, trying to console one another.
Cyrus bowed his head in sorrow, averting his pain-filled eyes away

151