OTTAWA – Every time Joel Gauthier would arrive at the Ottawa airport to collect his uncle Mario Beauchamp for a visit from Calgary, the 18-year-old would rush up to him and see if he had finally matched his height.
No matter how many times he tried, though, Gauthier was always about an inch and a half short of his 6’1 relative.
Now Beauchamp will never know if his nephew was ever going to catch up to him. Gauthier died Friday night in hospital after lightning struck him during a storm that passed through Ottawa earlier in the evening, bringing with it torrents of rain and thunder.
“He made sure he drove the car (to the airport) to pick me up and stood right by my side,” said Beauchamp in an interview from Calgary on Saturday evening. “It made me laugh. He stood up straight and stuff. I even put my cowboy boots on, just to nag him.”
Gauthier was riding a bicycle in Vincent Massey Park, just south of Carleton University, when the rain, lightning and thunder swept up around him at about 7 p.m., paramedics said. He and an 18-year-old girl stopped to put on their rain coats when lightning struck him and the tree they were standing under.
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He was in cardiac arrest when paramedics found him at the scene. A cyclist who was passing through performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him, the Ottawa fire department said, but he remained in the same condition when he arrived at the hospital.
Some of Gauthier’s friends were expecting him at a surprise birthday party for someone else on Friday night, but they were unsure about why he didn’t turn up until they found out Saturday morning about his death.
“We’re all in shock,” said Mathieu Renaud, who had known Gauthier since they were in Grade 5 together and described him as one of his “best buddies.”
“He was always good to people, always there to help anyone – one of the best.”
The two regularly went bicycling and camping together in Vermont, said Renaud.
Gauthier had been downhill mountain biking just before he was struck, which, according to Gauthier, was one of the activities he most loved. A number of photos he posted to his Facebook page show his face covered up by a racing helmet while travelling with friends on mountain bikes through the forest.
He had started his first year studying electrical engineering at Carleton University in 2011, said Beauchamp, but still commuted from his home in Rockland for classes.
Gauthier was energetic, organized and had a “heart of gold,” according to Beauchamp.
“He was the love of my life, I can tell you that,” he said.
The 18-year-old girl was also taken to hospital with numbness in her arms, paramedics said, but they didn’t know if that was also from the lightning.
Friday’s storm left a trail of damage at a number of areas throughout the city.
Lightning struck a clothes line at 27 Smirle Ave. that then extended to the house, the fire department reported, but there was no fire.
The wind from the storm also blew off a portion of a four-storey apartment building on Mayfield Street in the east end, Ottawa fire said, resulting in water damage to five apartments.
Gauthier was going to be celebrating his nineteenth birthday in the next few weeks. He is survived by two parents and a sister who is 16 years old, said Beauchamp.
His uncle, meanwhile, will arrive at the airport in Ottawa one more time this week, when he expects his nephew’s funeral will be held.
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