A celebration of life service was held this weekend for a man who was struck and killed by a vehicle while riding his bicycle this past summer.
Saturday would have been his 61st birthday.
Charles (Chuck) Vautrin was a man who kept to himself, but still ended up touching those around him.
“None of us knew Chuck very well. Even me,” says Tara-Lee Smith-Williams, Vautrin’s landlady and friend. “He kept to himself, turning down any social invitation.”
Vautrin, a Glenburnie resident, was killed by an alleged female teenage drunk driver on Aug. 16, on Perth Road, north of Kingston, Ont.
Smith-Williams says Vautrin was adamant about his physical health – he was riding his bicycle to work. It was 2:30 a.m. that Friday morning.
“That may explain his fascination for exercise, for riding his bike eight kilometres to and from work every day,” says Smith-Williams. “Every day — no matter the weather.”
Vautrin had been renting a room in Smith-Williams’ basement for almost nine years.
The two met through a mutual friend when Vautrin moved to Kingston from New York state after his mother died in her late 90s.
After Vautrin’s death, no family stepped forward to claim his body.
In fact, it was Smith-Williams who found his distant relatives and not the Kingston police after an extensive search.
She says she wanted to do something to remember and honour the very private and quiet man.
“I think part of that was because he had lived alone a long time looking after his mother, and all of the jobs he had were where he worked alone,” says Smith-Williams. “It was probably his personality as well.”
Vautrin worked as a cab driver for Amey’s Greenwood Taxi in Kingston.
Several co-workers attended the celebration of life on Vautrin’s 61st birthday.
With no next of kin, Smith-Williams brought many of Vautrin’s belongings to the service — all with the tags still attached — on display for anyone to take home, including over a dozen toques and gloves.
“He rode his bike in the winter,” says Smith-Williams. “I don’t know why he didn’t buy good quality that would last.
“They are all dollar store stuff.”
Vautrin’s funeral was a no-frills event as well.
The City of Kingston laid Vautrin to rest at the Cataraqui Cemetery.
The man who lived a quiet life seemed to find solace in his many books.
“Over 60 high-end math and physics textbooks,” says Smith-Williams, “boxes and boxes of his own notes, solving the problems from those books.”
A ghost bicycle was placed at the scene where Vautrin was killed.
The driver of the car that killed Vautrin was charged and is to appear in court in January.
“(Vautrin) was a friend that was probably overlooked and I didn’t want that to happen,” Smith-Williams said.
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