Charlotte Goulden received the worst phone call of her life early Saturday morning.
Her son, Simon-Pierre Houde, had been killed in a head-on collision while driving home from work along Highway 97 near Peachland the night before.
Goulden, who lives in Nova Scotia, said she woke up around 4:00 a.m. to a frantic phone call from her son’s girlfriend.
“She said, ‘He’s gone,’ and I said, ‘He’s gone? Is he on the plane coming to see me?’” she said.
Then it sunk in.
“I just threw the phone and I was screaming. I have never screamed like that in my life,” she said, her voice full of tears.
“It’s the worst thing that I could hear from somebody else … that your son is not coming back, that I’m never going to be able to hug him and hold him.”
Houde, 24, was driving home to Kelowna from a mushroom farm in Summerland, where he had worked for the past four years.
Around 9:45 p.m., a Buick sedan travelling south on Drought Hill crossed the centre line and struck his Mazda head-on. He died on the scene, according to police.
The young man was born in Quebec, but spent much of his childhood in the tiny community of Port Saxon, on Nova Scotia’s southernmost point.
He moved to B.C. to attend the University of British Columbia, where he studied environmental sciences.
Goulden described him as soft-hearted, patient and ambitious.
“I raised my son by myself as a single mom. Me and him always had a special bond,” she said.
“Simon-Pierre was the kindest person ever. He wouldn’t hurt nothing, even if you were poor or rich — it doesn’t matter to him. He was a kind soul, and everybody loved him.”
Goulden says she grieves her son’s passing, but also grapples with the big question: Why?
She said a police officer told her the driver who crossed into oncoming traffic had not been impaired.
“I’m hoping the investigation will give me more answers because, to me, it is not clear,” she said. The RCMP’s regional traffic unit has taken over the case.
“Please, if you have any information, come forward. I need answers.”
Houde’s employer, What the Fungus, posted a heartfelt message on Facebook on Sunday afternoon.
Colleagues with remember him as a supportive, dedicated employee with a great sense of humour, the post said.
Any witnesses or those with dashcam footage of the crash are asked to contact police at 250-491-5354 and cite file number 2020-1975.