Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

BRACEBRIDGE — Dan and Tracy Nelson expect a “steady stream” of people Saturday afternoon here at Reynolds Funeral Home for a celebration of life for their son, Cody, who was tragically killed while riding his e-bike home from work to Uffington — where he grew up and lived with his family and beloved son, two-year-old son Liam.

From 2-4 p.m. they will be with their daughter Tyiara, 31, other son Quintin, 26, and their grandson they will be raising.

“We expect 100-150 people,” Dan said today.

But it will be more as the community mourns with them.

“Listening to people, we think there’ll be a lot more than that now,” he said. “I’m assuming that there’s going to just be a steady stream of people going in out of there.

“The general warm outreach from society — it’s a hard way to get positive input from the world. But we’ve seen nothing but positive from people,” following what police called a “motorcycle” accident at 10:45 p.m. Friday May 22 on the eastern edge of the downtown core.

Uffington is just of Bracebridge and south off Hwy. 118 where he’d commute to work.

“He rode everywhere,” said his mom. And “died way too young,” she told MuskokaTODAY.com Monday.

He had just gotten off working in the kitchen at the Barrel House restaurant, on Wellington Street in Bracebridge, where he’d only been employed a month with dreams of becoming a chef.

A Muskoka Falls Public School student, he went on to high school at BMLSS.  And would have turned 24 on Aug. 14.

He was separated and had just gotten custody of his son.

For two years before he had worked at the deli counter at Sobey’s in Gravenhurst where fellow employees said he was always “cheerful and smiling.”

And he “loved fishing with his son,” said his mom.

Mom drove up upon accident scene

She said police didn’t get a chance to call her about the tragic accident.

“I knew something was wrong that night, because I know the time Cody should be home.

“And I was calling him, calling him. And he usually calls me back within seconds or couple of minutes. And then nothing, nothing, nothing. So I knew something was wrong.

“I said to my husband if you get my truck I’m gong to look for Cody. For my son.

“I came just over the overpass and the police had already been setting up their barricades. So I had ask them if there had been an accident.

“And they asked me, ‘Why do you ask?’ I said ‘Because I’m looking for my son. So they told me to pull over. They didn’t have his identity. But I described him and they said ‘that sounds like him and they’ve just rushed him to hospital.’

“So I went to the hospital. My daughter (who works at Subaru in Bracebridge) came with me and we were talking to my other son, in Regina, by phone.

“I heard (Cody) never regained conscious.”

And his death was “devastating,” she said. “It tore our whole family apart.”

Especially after the difficult past six months.

Dan, who turned 57 yesterday, spent the first half of December coping with heart surgery and having valve replaced. He was having trouble breathing, but “it wasn’t a heart attack,” said Tracy, 56.

The couple own the 30-year-old Nelson Automotive, located in the industrial area at the north end of Gravenhurst.

Police haven’t told the family the full circumstances of the accident.

Other than he left the Barrel House restaurant in Bracebridge, on Wellington Street.

He’d previously worked two years in the deli at Sobeys in Gravenhurst.

And was headed home to Uffington along Ecclestone Drive and out Hwy. 118 to where he had always lived to be with his parents and son Liam, 2.

The accident occurred in front of the Fenner Dunlop factory.

Police said the driver of the motor vehicle, Ethan McKiernan, of Bracebridge, was arrested and charged with (Impaired) Operation Causing Death and Dangerous Operation Causing Death.

“We don’t know where he was coming from …,” said Cody’s father. “We believe he was coming from town. But we don’t know because the OPP haven’t completed their investigation.”

Cody had only worked at the Lake of Bays Brewing Co. business “about a month,” his family said.

“It was a job he wanted,” said his Dad, “now becoming a chef.” And “thinking of culinary school,” added his mom.

“He was 23 years old and just getting his shit together and starting to figure out life,” Dan said.

“He had just taken possession of his little boy — he was his world.

“They talk a lot about deadbeat fathers. This young man had stepped up and wanted to raise his child right. He wanted him to have a life.

“And now he gets taken from us by somebody who was too stupid to take a cab.”

E-bike ‘lit up like Christmas tree’

“It’s not like he couldn’t be seen. His bike was all lit up like a Christmas tree and he wore a bright green fluorescent coat. You could see him a mile away.

“It wasn’t like he was in shorts and a t-shirt.”

Nelson said “it will all end up in court. We’re already proceeding with that. There’s going to be a civil lawsuit against him.

“There’s a two-and-a-half-year-old boy who doesn’t have a Dad.

“How do you tell him his Dad isn’t coming home?

That Dad’s not going to make you breakfast this morning.

Dad’s not going to take you to the playground today.

“This young man, anytime he wasn’t working he spent time with him.”

“He’d get up in the morning and do whatever. He’d head out of the house and do stuff with Liam. He even had a trailer he’d pull behind his other bike and ride into town and take him to the playground.”
Cody would work at the Barrel House from 4-10 p.m. And his mom would come home and look after her grandson when he went to his night job.

As for the bike Cody was on the night he died, his father said: “The one he was riding was an e-bike. It looked like a dirt bike. It was brand new, he just got it last fall before the snow hit.”

Dan, a mechanic for 39 years, said “I didn’t have to do any work on it. I’m a mechanic, but not an e-bike mechanic by any means. He said it was a brand new bike, it didn’t have to have any work on it.”

Dan wasn’t exactly sure if it had pedals.

He said his son “didn’t cut corners when it came to safety on that bike. He knew the problems out there.”

He said son was also wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

“It was the only thing on his body that wasn’t hurt. The helmet was fine. He had an actual motorcycle helmet on.

“Once he had the accident the OPP took the bike because they had to confirm everything was working right. Well, they came back to us last Friday and they told Tracy ‘nothin’ wrong with the bike.’”

He told police “we didn’t want it back. They’re going to send it to scrap due to the fact there isn’t much left to it after it got run over by a car.

“Just memories of my son, I really don’t want it (at home).”

Fundraisers total $42,000 so far

Cody’s parents thanked generous community members for their support.

As of Sunday Sobeys in Gravenhurst had raised “almost $23,000” n donations the past week alone at their checkout counter tills, said store operator Jesse Grimes.

He said they were still getting donations and enquiries Monday.

He will be giving them a cheque this week “from the community.”

A GoFundMe campaign had also raised just more than $19,000 as of Monday afternoon. It was set up by Tracy’s sister Holly-Ann Campbell, of Ajax.

The Barrel House said they weren’t doing anything out of respect for the privacy of the family.

Said Dan: “There’s a pile of people doing stuff.

“They can go on about how the Bracebridge hospital sucks and people ripping on the OPP. And how cruel society’s become.

“Well the Bracebridge OPP has gone way over to help us get through this and do anything to help us out.

“The Bracebridge hospital, they done more than they would normally do try to save him. The coroner even told us that no matter how hard the hospital tried to save him he was probably dead instantly. There was so much internal damage. There was no way they could have saved him.”

Anything else you would like

to say about your son?

“We’re both just very hurt. We’re grieving because it never should have happened. He was just on his way home to his family and his little boy. And so, yeah, like parents this is our baby. He was part of our everyday life.

And of course “we’re angry. It’s just a senseless thing that should never have happened. Drinking and driving has to stop. And until our laws change it’s not going to.”

“Every time you look at the news it’s impaired, impaired. When is it going to stop? How many more people have to die? How many families have to be torn apart?”

It’s such a sad story, Tracy said. “It’s just such a loss.”

She said: “We’re all just like, you know, like it’s the loss of a child. We’re devastated.

“He was the kindest, sweetest, gentle soul. He would take his little boy to the park and they would go out for late lunch or early dinner. He just loved being with his son and going out with his friends and having fun.

“You know, when my husband was going through heart surgery, of course we had to shut the business down. And I was scared, you know, that I was gonna lose my husband. But (Cody) was right here with me. He took almost a month off work to help me at home. He was great.

“He came to me and let me cry and even said ‘Mom, if you need money ….

Tearing up again, she added it’s hard for Liam, “he doesn’t really understand yet.”

They have lots of pictures around the house and “we will definitely keep his memory alive with stories. Just let him know how much his dad really did love him.”

And his Mom, too.

“Yep! The whole family. All of us,” she said. “He was my baby. He was the youngest.”

What do you remember about Cody growing up?

“Well he was a red hair. So he was special. But he was always my baby. We were very close. Yeah! You know, like every kid you have your issues. Like nothing serious, just sometimes you know they don’t like your rules.”

The grandparents were back at work last week; because we’re self-employed we had no choice.”

Nelson Automotive doesn’t see many accident results or repairs, “because we do more mechanic than body work.”

Tracy said “so many people” have reached out. “The community has been amazing.

“I know all of Cody’s friends have reached out to me. They’re amazing. So many people.”

The Nelsons plan a celebration of life, “because that is how our son would have wanted it,” his mom said. “Not a sad funeral. “It’s going to be a very sad day.”

“His brother Quintin is in (Regina) Saskatchewan and is taking it exceptionally hard because he didn’t get to say good-bye to his brother. He is on his way home on Friday.

Dan added: “My niece lives in B.C. and she’s coming home. My brother’s ex, Cody’s aunt, is coming from back from Nova Scotia. There are going to be people from all over the country here.

He said one lady from Newfoundland “we don’t even know” read about it and phoned Tracy. She shared her story about her son, also 23, who died in a hit-and-run outside his dad’s home in Alliston.

“Because she was in same boat and wanted to help “make do.”

“So listening to people we think there’ll be a lot more” Saturday. “I’m assuming that there’s going to just be a steady stream of people going in out of there.”

Cody is also survived by his grandmothers Viola Nelson and Rita Franchi.

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