WATCH ABOVE: Fifty-year-old Chris Harper was cycling in Milton Friday when he was struck by an alleged drunk driver, the victim of a hit-and-run. Lama Nicolas has more on how he’s being remembered.
TORONTO — A funeral took place today for a beloved Oakville teacher and father of five killed in a hit-and-run collision in Milton last week.
Chris Harper, 50, was riding his bicycle southbound on Tremaine Road near Lower Base Line when he was struck from behind by a vehicle on Friday night at about 9 p.m., according to Halton Regional Police. He suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said the driver of the vehicle failed to remain at the scene of the accident but was located by investigators shortly after the collision.
Michelle Maisey, 33, of Oakville faces charges of impaired operation causing death, blood alcohol level over 80, dangerous operation causing death and fail to stop at the scene causing death.
“How much devastation that one incident has caused — there’s a husband gone, father of five children gone, teacher gone,” said family friend Heidi Cyfko.
“It’s just so sad we keep telling the same story over and over and people are getting killed.”
Michael Fugler, a colleague and friend of Harper’s, set up an online fundraising campaign for Hill, 40, where supporters can contribute to a University education fund for their five children — Luke, 13, Nicole, 12, Lia, 8, Alison, 4, and Joseph, 3. A second online fundraising campaign had also been set up for supporters to donate to Harper’s family, with the combined total of the two exceeding $40,000 at the time of the funeral.
“I just know how much Chris cared about education and how many kids he helped pursue university and college educations and wanted to make sure that his kids had the same opportunity,” Fugler said.
“I think that they’ve got lots of family around them right now, it’s obviously tough they were appreciative of everything that has been done and all the well wishes that the community has given them and I think that it’s tough but I think that they’re happy to know that their husband, their father, was so loved.”
Fugler said it was complete “shock” for students and teachers to hear of the news and he wishes he could have said a proper goodbye to Harper.
“At the end of school we say our so longs, our farewells, but fully expect to see everyone in two months,” he said.
“That was obviously not the case this time and that’s what made it so hard is that it wasn’t a real goodbye, it was just a see you later. That made it tough.”
An obituary for Harper on the Glen Oaks Funeral Home website described a man who was an avid cyclist and doting father.
Harper’s eight-year-old daughter, Lia, had questions for her mother Sunday morning, according to the obituary.
“What will we do now on Father’s Day? she asked her mom. (They discussed planting a rose bush.) Why didn’t the driver see Daddy on his bike?” it reads.
“We talked about how the lady had made a terrible mistake, and sometimes we make mistakes we can fix, like telling a lie,” Harper’s wife Melissa Hill, an English teacher at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secondary School in Mississauga, said in the obituary.
“But this was a mistake we cannot fix, and that is just the way it is.”
On Sunday, Harper’s wife said she gave each of their children a piece of paper to write on to help them through the grieving process.
“I said, ‘You can draw a picture or write him a note. It can be private, and we’re going to take it to Daddy and tuck it in his pocket,'” she said in the obituary.
“Things were so sudden. I felt they needed some way to say goodbye and to give him something.”
Lia, the eight-year-old daughter who had worried about Father’s Day, had a question about the note, too.
“Lia asked if this was the last time we would be making a card for Daddy,” Hill said. “And I said no, we would make all the cards we wanted. We can read them to him at the cemetery.”
A memorial continued to grow on Wednesday outside the Meadowvale Secondary School in Mississauga where Harper taught history and economics, with friends and family placing flowers and writing messages in chalk on a wall of the school.
“He was a very nice, warm guy. Everyone could approach him. He was always pleasant to be around and very helpful with your work and stuff — always trying to get you to move forward,” said Stefan Hutton, a former student of Harper’s.
“I was shocked, I would never expect something like this to happen. Plus, what happened in my opinion I think is probably one of the worst things somebody can do, such a selfless act of drinking and driving allegedly.”
Hutton said looking at the memorial outside of the school gave him “goosebumps.”
“It really hits you,” he said.
“It’s nice to see there’s so many people that cared about him but I’d rather still have him around instead of what happened.”
Harper’s family held a memorial service for Harper at 4 p.m. on Wednesday at the Glen Oaks Funeral Home and Cemetery in Oakville. A small reception at the funeral home followed.
A trust fund has been set up for his five children’s education and supporters can donate online, in addition to a CIBC account has also been set up to help Hill and her children over the upcoming months.
Donations can be made in two ways:
- In person at any CIBC branch. You will need to provide the transit #04922 and the account #5475392.
- Online through an e-transer with your own bank. You will need to provide the following information: Name: Melissa Hill Email: fundforharperfamily@gmail.com Security question: donor’s choice (as the answer will be donation) Security answer: donation
With files from Lama Nicolas
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