Firsts are often the toughest.
This year was the first holiday season without a family’s devoted mother, Angela McKenzie.
The mom of five children between the ages of nine and 18 has been gone since the night of May 10, 2022.
Her mother Sylvia McKenzie said Angela was the light of their family.
“She was our beacon,” Sylvia said. “At church they talk about a beacon and I didn’t understand what a beacon was. I now know what a beacon is, that’s what she is.”
Sylvia McKenzie, Angela McKenzie’s mom.
The 40-year-old mother was driving home in her minivan when she was hit by a man police believe was driving a stolen vehicle.
Investigators suspect Talal Amer was firing his gun at a different target and during the high speed chaos crashed into Mckenzie’s vehicle leaving her to die.
Her fiancé, Jeff Poirier, recalled that awful night.
“She left my house and was headed home to the kids, and she didn’t make it home because I didn’t get a phone call,” Poirier said.
“I always got a phone call every night as soon as she made it home, and I never got that call.”
That silence forced him to go look for her. He came upon the crash scene.
“The first thing I asked the police officer was, ‘Where is the lady driving that vehicle?’ That’s when he told me she didn’t make it. She died on scene.
“Even with all that, the hardest part was telling Oma and telling the kids. That’s what broke me was having to tell them,” Poirier said.
In that moment it forced a whole new life for the family. McKenzie’s five children are now raised together by their Oma, Sylvia McKenzie, and Poirier.
“I’ve loved these kids since they day they were born. Whether they are biologically mine or not, these kids are protected by me,” Poirier said.
“I feel like I belong here.”
“It’s a busy life now and a total new beginning, totally different,” McKenzie said.
“We talk about her all the time and there isn’t a question we don’t answer. We miss her all the time.”
Poirier said she spent so much time with her children and would help anybody.
“She was always looking at the best, the worst didn’t matter because the best was where she was aimed,” Poirier said.
They have a glass cabinet in the front room with photos and memories.
Angela’s youngest daughter, Arianna Shaw, clings to those thoughts of a time she and her mom were together.
“I would walk into her room and hop into her bed, that was the best times,” Arianna said. “I would love how she would cuddle me and throw the blanket over me and she would just say: ‘You’re not leaving.’ She would not let me leave.”
There is a wall of nostalgic photos, but they’re not afraid to make new ones.
“You lost someone you miss and that’s the good part — you get to talk about her. She’s not completely gone, she’s just in your heart,” Arianna said.
Caera Shaw remembers the night her mom stayed up with her until the morning helping her finish her math homework, drinking pop and eating Cheetos.
“I have a lot of emotions over this,” Caera said.
The family are pleading with the public and the man himself to come forward and take accountability.
“It’s unfair what happened to her and I want the guy that did this to her to feel guilty,” Caera said. “She was a good person.”
“Some people think they would react with violence but, being who Angela was, I know that would never have been the answer for her,” Poirier said. “You have to atone for what you’ve done and I am hoping he’s caught.”
But they will move forward through their grief, together.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and I would like to think this is making me a hell of a Superman,” Poirier said.
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