I have always wanted to blog a note about Lindsay as she was a 2nd year medical student at University of Calgary and a close personal friend of my family. I have met her and her family once or twice in my lifetime and learning about her tragic accident certainly has hit home.Here is her obituary from last year:
December 31, 1981 - February 17, 2008
With overwhelming sorrow and shattered hearts, we announce the sudden passing of our precious daughter, Lindsay on February 17, 2008. Lindsay was born on December 31, 1981 in Calgary and was completely adored by her parents, Kelly and Dianne, and her brothers, Taylor and Reid. Lindsay was everything we could have asked for in a daughter - beautiful, intelligent, athletic and most of all caring. She was a devoted sister to her brothers and loved to "mother" them from an early age. This ability turned to teaching as they grew older and they both knew who to ask if they needed help with homework. As they all grew older, we tried to make Sunday family dinners a priority - what special times to sit and discuss the events in everyone's life. Lindsay's voracious thirst for knowledge started at a very young age. Each night she wanted to read her books and then would lie on her bed with Mom or Dad and ask "What are we doing tomorrow and what should I dream about?" As she learned to read so young, she also quickly became an accomplished piano player and subsequently learned to play the flute and piccolo. Linds never stopped dreaming and learning, becoming a model student and excellent athlete. She graduated as Cochrane High School's Valedictorian in 1999 and received the Governor General's medal for the highest marks in her graduating class. Lindsay then earned a kinesiology degree with distinction from the University of Calgary in 2004. After taking time off to travel and work Lindsay decided that medicine was her future calling, achieving marks in the 99.7 percentile on her MCAT exams. She entered the Faculty of Medicine at U of C in August 2006 and was currently in her second year of studies. Lindsay had decided that Emergency Medicine was her passion and was preparing to do clerkships in Toronto, Halifax and Kingston in the coming months.
Lindsay was driven in her pursuit of knowledge through her extensive travels. We have learned that one of her favorite quotes was by St. Augustine, "The world is a book and those who don't travel read only a page." We always chose to make our vacations family times and have so many wonderful memories of time shared on beaches at tropical destinations, camping in Yellowstone, summer spent driving across Canada, two European vacations and exploring Disney facilities. As Lindsay grew, so did her sense of adventure. She had traveled extensively in Europe - the latest being a month spent alone in Italy. Between her first and second year of Med school, she chose to do an elective in Tanzania. At the end of her trip, she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and to the credit of her character, she reached the summit while suffering from severe bronchitis. She was an avid photographer on her travels and her final gift to Dianne was a framed photograph of zebras in their head to tail stance which she had taken while on African safari. Her final trip was a relaxing week in the Dominican Republic with friends from Med school.
All of her life experiences, studying, reading, working and attending school for twenty-two years made Lindsay what her Dad called "the smartest person I have ever known". You could Google things but it was much better to just ask Linds! Lindsay was the ultimate employee and her Dad was the lucky recipient of her skills. She started as a cashier at Cochrane IDA Drugs at the age of fourteen and became a pharmacy technician working side by side with Kelly. Lindsay also teched and did accounting at Rexall, moved on to Super Drug Mart, United Prescription Service and Calgary Prescription Services where she ran the total operation. Her short time as a personal trainer led her to decide on her path to Medicine. Anyone who worked with Lindsay always knew the job first would be learned accurately and quickly and then fine-tuned and perfected. With her desire to learn, caring attitude, personal confidence and attention to detail Lindsay would have become a wonderful doctor.
Lindsay also loved sports, especially winter pursuits. She started figure skating at age five but quickly told her parents that it was boys skates and ringette that she really wanted. She played ringette until the age of twenty and then switched to her passion - girls hockey. Her main activity was hockey but as she said: "Ice, ball or mini - you name it - I love it - especially the Flames." Lindsay played for several ladies teams over the last seven years and was the leader of the Med school second year Macaques ladies team. Kelly and Dianne attended her final game with the Macaques last Tuesday and she played the finest game we had ever witnessed her play leading her team to a 3 to 2 overtime win over the first year class. It would be the last time her loving parents would see her alive - beaming from ear to ear, rosy cheeked, sweaty and exhausted in her beloved "Monumental" (med school nickname) jersey. Lindsay was also instrumental in organizing the "Ice Cup" inter varsity hockey tournament held last fall. Lindsay died on Sunday morning returning from a hockey game with her regular club team, the Jets. She was a passenger in a car that rolled only seconds from her parents' home.
We were never sure how Lindsay fit volunteer commitments into her hectic schedule - assisting with the PARTY program at Foothills Hospital, organizing multiple fundraisers for teams she was involved with, as treasurer of her Med school class, and a member of the Med School class of 2009 graduation committee.
Besides her parents, Kelly and Dianne and brothers Taylor and Reid, Lindsay is survived by grandparents, Lorraine Kimmett and Merlin and Betty Stauffer; uncles and aunts Drew and Rhonda Wilson, Russ and Angela Kimmett, Dennis and Margaret Nice, George and Brenda Jablonsky, Doug Stauffer, Oscar and Maureen Biasini, and Darren and Pam Stauffer. She is also survived by cousins Kelsey Wilson, Hunter, McConnell and Carly Kimmett, Angie, Christie, Debbie, Josh and Daniel Nice, Brianne and Miles Jablonsky, Aaron and Garrett Biasini and Julie, Peter and Samuel Stauffer. She is also survived by numerous great-aunts and uncles and many, many friends. She was predeceased by her grandpa Bill Kimmett in 1991.
Our family and the world has lost someone who made a difference every day of her life and someone who was going to do great things in the future. We cannot let Lindsay's dreams go unfulfilled and so as a family, we will carry on her legacy with the establishment of the Lindsay Leigh Kimmett Memorial Fund. We will continue to make the world a better place as she most surely would have done. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made at any Royal Bank (Cochrane or Calgary branches). Tax receipts will be issued at a later date. This fund will be used for youth scholarships, facilities and projects in the Cochrane area.
We have been told that Lindsay had never been happier than in the last three months of her life. Her schooling, her hockey, her new friend Ben MacLelland, her anticipation of clerkship and her love of family and friends had Lindsay at her peak. Linds was a chip off the old blocks in so many ways. We discovered a written menu and a shopping list meant for the turkey dinner she was preparing (just like Dianne always does) for many of her med school friends that fateful day. We are sure her party for that day had been carefully arranged just as Kelly would have done. In her birth announcement of December 31, 1981 the following words ended the formalities - "She is you, she is me, and we are one." Nothing has changed with her untimely passing - Lindsay will always be with us - forever in our hearts.
A Celebration of Lindsay's Momentous Life will be held at Cochrane High School Gymnasium (529 - 4 Avenue North) on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. Family Graveside to follow in Cochrane.
