Smiles for strangers, helping hands for friends and deep love for family were just some of the ways that hundreds of mourners in Ottawa remembered Dave Woodard at his memorial service in Ottawa on Wednesday.
Woodard died two weeks ago when the OCTranspo bus he was driving crashed through a railway barrier and struck a Via Rail train, killing six people including Woodard, who was the last to be laid to rest.
READ MORE: Funeral service held Wednesday for bus driver killed in deadly Ottawa bus
“Dave was the goods… can’t say much more than that,” said Troy Charter, manager of transit operations at OCTranspo, during Woodard’s celebration of life service.
More than 1,400 people, many wearing Woodard’s favourite colour green, attended the service to remember him and support his wife Terry, daughter Rebecca and two stepsons Martin and Marc Leury.
“We will always be grateful that a part of you is now a part of us,” Martin Leury said during the service, after reading a poem entitled “The Measure of a Man” that was written by Woodard’s brother-in-law.
Among the mourners were more than 300 of Woodard’s OCTranspo colleagues, who used words like generous, thoughtful, conscientious, and caring to describe Woodard.
Many also wore shorts – a part of the OCTranspo uniform Woodard was notorious for wearing well after the summer months.
“To our customers he wasn’t just an operator. He was their operator. To his colleagues he was a friend,” said Charter.
Woodard’s friend Blair Bisson remembered his love of karaoke, dancing and campfires – recalling how his friend always had to be the last one to bed.
Bisson also said Woodard would always give of his time and money to support charity events, once spending an inordinate amount of money on a peanut butter cheesecake just to donate it back to a fundraiser for cancer.
“There was so much good in Dave. It was all around him and it flowed out of him,” Bisson said.
Woodard’s younger brother Steve urged the attendees to slow down in life, never to miss a chance to hug their loved ones or smile at a stranger, “because Dave did it everyday.”
“We know he left this earth too early but the big guy upstairs must have needed a driver to shuttle him around and he only takes the best,” said Woodard.
As the hearse carrying Woodard’s body left the church, his OCTranspo colleagues lined the driveway to salute the fallen driver as he headed out on his final route.
The Transportation Safety Board is continuing its investigation into the crash, which also killed Connor Boyd, Michael Bleakney, Karen Krzyzewski, Rob More and Kyle Nash.
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