Almost 200 days in the past, Alison Côté misplaced her 22-year-old daughter, Juliette, in a tragic boat crash.
“We have been doing okay,” Côté mentioned. “Simply taking it someday at a time. Good days and dangerous days.”
It occurred on Might 18 round 9:30 p.m. within the Buck Bay space of Bobs Lake, roughly 140 kilometres southwest of Ottawa.
Riley Orr, 23, and Kaila Bearman, 21, have been additionally killed within the crash with Juliette, whereas they have been having fun with the lengthy weekend at a cottage with a gaggle of pals. 5 others have been additionally injured that night time.
Juliette had taken the weekend off from work so she might go, one thing her mom says she did not do usually.
“I used to be form of excited for her that she was going to have the ability to lastly go and cling together with her pals and simply have a enjoyable time.”
That pleasure shortly turned to horror, as that may be their ultimate dialog.
“I had checked in with Juliette earlier that day, and he or she mentioned she was having a good time,” Côté mentioned.
Juliette Côté and her boyfriend Ben Viau. (Equipped by Alison Côté)
44-year-old going through a dozen charges
Final week, Ontario Provincial Police introduced 44-year-old Matthew Splinter from South Frontenac had been charged with a dozen charges, together with three counts every of impaired operation inflicting demise and three counts of harmful operation of a conveyance inflicting demise.
From the night time it occurred, to the date charges have been laid, about five-and-a-half months had handed.
Sitting down with Ontario Chronicle within the eating room of her dwelling simply north of Kingston, Ont., Côté admitted the method was irritating at occasions, figuring out the accused was dwelling life usually earlier than he was arrested.
Regardless of that, she mentioned the household understands why it took so lengthy.
“Shortly after the accident, we met with two of the law enforcement officials dealing with the investigation and so they defined your entire course of to us,” she mentioned.
“We simply wished to be sure that they have been doing their due diligence.”
Côté provides that there’s a little bit of aid with charges lastly being laid, however it brings the disappointment of dropping their daughter again to the floor and does not change what occurred.
Remembering the night time
Côté and her husband, Jim, have been in Niagara Falls, Ont. celebrating a pal’s fiftieth birthday on Might 18.
She received a name from one in all Juliette’s pals saying there had been an accident and so they have been performing CPR on her daughter. Côté did not know that Juliette was already gone at that time.
They frantically packed up the automobile to drive to Kingston Normal Hospital, which is a few four-hour drive.
She remembers feeling helpless.
“It was probably the most terrible drive ever,” she mentioned.
Their son Jack and his girlfriend arrived on the hospital first and known as them to inform them Juliette was deceased.
“It was simply surreal. You do not ever count on something like that’s going to occur to you,” Côté mentioned.
Alison Côté (proper) and her daughter Juliette Côté (left). Juliette was killed after a ship crash on Bobs Lake in Might, 2024. (Equipped by Alison Côté)
On the hospital, they received to see Juliette’s boyfriend, Ben Viau, who was one of many 5 injured within the crash.
“He was simply in terrible form,” she mentioned. “He was simply so apologetic as a result of he thought he had allow us to down not directly, however in fact he hadn’t. There’s nothing he might do, and he had simply misplaced the love of his life, so it is simply exhausting to see.”
Ben and Juliette had been courting for 5 years and deliberate to spend the remainder of their lives collectively.
“He’ll at all times be a part of our household.”
Côté says the concept two different households have skilled the identical tragedy magnifies the disappointment.
“They misplaced the loves of their lives as properly,” she mentioned. “That is simply how we really feel. So, I do know that is how they really feel.”
She says they did not know Orr and Bearman’s households earlier than the accident however have been in touch recurrently since.
Honouring Juliette
The Côté household wished to share Juliette’s story to honour their daughter.
Her mom described her as the kind of individual to throw a celebration for one in all her pals if that they had a foul week and wanted to be cheered up. She was at all times there for these she cared about.
A photograph album made my Juliette. (Jack Richardson/ Ontario Chronicle Ottawa)
“My husband and I simply wish to reside that method going ahead,” she mentioned.
In a digital age, Juliette made a degree of printing photographs of herself with family and friends. She had two full albums of images and her mom retains them shut by to recollect her.
Côté additionally had an expert relationship together with her daughter. They co-owned a design enterprise collectively.
“We had at all times form of simply frolicked watching HGTV reveals, at all times dreaming about adorning and redecorating, and it was enjoyable to do it at any individual else’s home as a substitute of at all times doing it right here,” Côté mentioned with amusing.
However working the enterprise since her passing has been tough, as a result of Juliette was the star of the entire operation.
“The factor for me was making an attempt to understand whether or not it was one thing I used to be good at with out her as a result of she was so proficient at it,” she mentioned. “We have been actually wanting ahead to the long run and constructing the enterprise collectively.”
“It brings me pleasure simply because it makes me really feel near her.”
