Irmen family- tragedy strikes again

On October 8th our neighbors ended a lovely thanksgiving weekend in their newly rebuilt home in Abasand by sending off their oldest two children to head back to Edmonton. Unfortunately they received the worst call a parent can receive that afternoon. Sam(18) and Jacob(19) had been struck by a large transport truck just 5km south of Grassland. Sam was driving and received the lesser of the damages and Jacob had to be airlifted to the U of A hospital due to his life threatening injuries. As any parent would do, the Irmen’s packed up the family to stay by his side in Edmonton while he underwent multiple surgeries, an induced coma, etc. but even with the amazing efforts of the hospital Jacob succumbed to his injuries and passed away on October 25, 2018.

As if this isn’t devastating enough, Jacob was just laid off from his job only a couple days prior to the accident and therefore had no medical or life insurance in place to help cover the necessities of an extended complicated hospital stay (with family staying in the city to be by his side), as well as the funeral and transportation costs to Fort McMurray. Sam's injuries, although not life threatening, have rendered him unable to work. Like so many others in our city, the Irmen’s were just in a over 2 year battle with their home insurance from the May 2016 wildfire (in which they lost everything) which had depleted their savings already. As a neighbor I wanted to reach out and offer as much support as I could and after chatting with a few on our street we felt this fundraiser may be what they would need to allow them to grieve this whole experience without worrying about the cost it will take to bring Jacob back to be interred in Fort McMurray as he requested on his last day with his family.

This whole situation has something that has hit home for many families in our community knowing how the majority of those rebuilding after the fire has set them back financially and emotionally only to be now facing this tremendous challenge of giving a proper goodbye to their baby, another life lost on highway 63.

My goal in setting this up was to help alleviate some of their daily stress to ensure they are able to bring Jacob home to Fort McMurray for his proper goodbye. As a community I know we’ve rallied together for so many of our families in this community in sickness and health and even in death which is why I love to call Fort McMurray my home. This family deserves to grieve without the added stress of the costs associated for the final arrangements of their babies life. Please consider donating even your morning coffee expense as every little bit will help the Irmen family even if you think it wouldn’t make a difference.