A week ago, Priscilla Swampy was picking out material with her granddaughter Jerzeigh Swampy to make a jingle dress. Jerzeigh was drawn to hot pink and rainbow ribbons.
Priscilla put the materials on the table, with plans to sew the piece together, but that never happened. Instead, the kokum used the material to make a tea dress for her 14-year-old granddaughter’s wake.
“I felt honoured to do it,” Swampy said.
On Saturday, May 3rd at 11 p.m., Jerzeigh was with her friend, Cowin Twins. His brother-in-law, 26-year-old Gabe Johnson, was driving them to get slurpees.
The three were on Highway 2A just north of Ponoka near Township Road 434, when a GMC Acadia was passing other vehicles and struck an oncoming their Volkswagen Tiguan.
RCMP said they are still investigating if alcohol was a factor. They did confirm the 41-year-old driver of the GMC was seen driving erratically before the crash.
All four died in the crash, and they were all from Maskwacis.
“The accident site was like five minutes from here,” Swampy said.
“We immediately went to the site, and they allowed my daughter to see her. Stars Ambulance was amazing with her.”
The crash site is marked with a memorial of flowers.
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Swampy said Jerzeigh was shy but showed a big personality on the ice when she was playing hockey. Jerzeigh was interested in learning more about her Cree culture.
“She loved her culture and being a Cree woman.”
Jerzeigh recently got her learner’s driver’s licence, and was thinking about what she wanted to do with her life.
“Last week, I picked her up… and she said, ‘I know what I want to be, kokum. I want to be a hairdresser,’ and she had little gold tinsel in her hair,” Swampy said.
Jerzeigh was laid to rest on Thursday.
Gabe and Cowin will be laid to rest this weekend. Cowin’s sister Cherrita Saddleback was taking care of the 14-year-old, and Gabe was her spouse. She was with them the night of the crash.
Saddleback said they were having a fire.
“It was a beautiful moment that I’ll always remember, considering how it wasn’t even an hour after that…”
Cowin is remembered as hilarious and that he liked to prank call his sisters. He also enjoyed making pastries and would even try to sell them to make some cash.
“There’s not enough words to explain how special and beautiful and genuine and caring and loving Cowin was to everyone,” his sister Cherrisa Twins said.
“He had a lot of goals and ambitions, even as a 14-year-old little boy.”
Cowin had dreams of becoming a dermatologist and bugged his sisters about their skin care routine.
“It’s funny, because when I turned 25, he was like, ‘Oh, you’re 25, you’re pushing 30 now, you’re going to have to use retinol,’” Twins said.
Saddleback said Gabe was a good partner and a good father to his eight-year-old daughter.
“He always had a smile on his face, he was always smiling — it didn’t matter the circumstances — and he had a smile you could see across the room,” she said.
Saddleback said Gabe was also a hard worker, and selfless.
“Anytime he got the opportunity… he would give (someone) whatever article of clothing, if he was eating something and they looked like they needed it more, he’d give it to them.”
Saddleback is thankful that Cowin and Gabe weren’t alone when they passed away.
“I feel really fortunate that Gabe was able to be there with our little brother because we know he would have been scared and he always needed somebody to feel that comfort,” she said.
“It brings me absolute peace knowing that my two favorite people were able to and are able to walk that journey together, as hard as it is for me… I’ll be able to honour them how I can and make sure that nobody ever forgets how amazing they all were.”
Both families said the only light in all of this grief is the support they are getting from the community and also each other.
“I have to focus on those positives, although I’m numb and I don’t know how we are going to get through this, but we have to honour her spirit,” Swampy said.
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