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The family of a 19-year-old woman described as “full of life, love and kindness,” is heartbroken after her sudden death at a bustling intersection on Winnipeg’s east side.
Brook Lynn Zygarliski was struck and killed by a minivan at the intersection of Lagimodiere Boulevard and Dugald Road just before 3 a.m. on Oct. 31, according to a police news release that day.
“There’s a hole in my heart. I don’t know how to ever be OK ever again. I feel like my soul left with her,” Zygarliski’s mother Megan Zygarliski said Saturday.
Brook’s father, Matthew Zygarlisky, remembers being in disbelief after police told him of his daughter’s death.
“It’s like you’re dreaming and you just want to wake up from it, and as the day goes on you realize ‘Oh my god, this isn’t a dream. This is real.’ I just remember screaming, crying and being in total denial,” he said, calling it the longest week of his life.
“[It’s] just an emotional roller-coaster. One second you think you’re OK, and then it just hits you like a tidal wave.”
Brook had been out at a bar earlier that night with her friends but got separated, Matthew said. He says he can only speculate, but the family believes she made the decision to walk home based on the timeline of where she was to where the accident happened.
“It just breaks our hearts because any one of us would have been there in a second to pick her up if she needed,” Matthew said.
Brook was working full time at Canadian Linen and according to her father she was working toward a goal of moving out and getting her own place.
She is being remembered as someone who loved animals, cooking, dancing and gymnastics, and spending time with family and friends.
Brook had worked for weeks on her Halloween costume to go out with her friends that night, said her father.
“She spent weeks sewing, painting, sanding and everything to get this costume ready and it just breaks my heart that she didn’t get to just go out that night and wear it,” he said.
Matthew and Megan Zygarliski have received an outpouring of support after their daughter Brook Zygarliski was struck and killed by a minivan at the intersection of Lagimodiere Boulevard and Dugald Road just before 3 a.m. on Oct. 31. (Gavin Axelrod/CBC)
The support Brook’s family has received from her friends has been overwhelming, and that outpouring of support is what has helped Megan in dealing with her daughter’s death, she said.
“A lot of Brook’s best friends since childhood, considering their age, their maturity level is so high. They’ve been cooking food for both of us … they care so much about our family, and they’ve just been trying to help us through all of this,” Megan said.
“It means the world. It really just shows how valued Brook was by these people. She was loved — not just by us, but by this amazing community,” Matthew said.
The Zygarliski family hasn’t heard anything more from police since the accident other than that the investigation could take a few weeks.
Winnipeg police responded to the intersection of Lagimodiere Boulevard and Dugald Road on Oct. 31, after Brook Zygarliski was struck by a minivan. (Travis Golby/CBC)
However, the family learned from the medical examiner that the blunt force trauma Brook sustained from the vehicle meant she didn’t know what happened to her.
“It brought a lot of peace to the family and friends knowing she didn’t suffer,” Matthew said.
He doesn’t hold any ill will toward the driver of the minivan either.
“I’m not angry or anything. Whoever you are, I forgive you.”
There have been a total of 16 motor vehicle collisions resulting in six pedestrian fatalities on Winnipeg roads this year, police said in an an email to CBC on Friday.
Brook Zygarliski’s father said she was working toward moving out and getting her own place. (Submitted by Zygarliski Family)
Driving past the scene of the accident following Brook’s death has made her family wonder about the intersection, calling it quite busy.
The family said there’s nothing they’d like to see changed at the intersection Brook died at. But they have noticed little things while driving over the past week, including wondering why aren’t there more merge lanes.
They aren’t sure how they will muster the strength to keep going, but they will strive to honour her by living life to the fullest, just as she did, her father said.
“She was an angel. I loved her so much. I miss her so much. She was perfect and the best daughter, and the best sister,” Megan said.
“She was full of life and love and kindness. She will be missed.”