A yellow urn etched with a flock of birds flying away, sits next to Brittanie Chabot. She keeps it close always.
“This is what I have left of my mom now, and it saddens me, we are all devasted,” she said from her Lloydminster home.
On October 4, 2024, a 57-year-old woman was struck by a GMC pick-up truck on a southeast Calgary street. Police said the driver stayed on scene but the pedestrian died in hospital. Her name was Marlene Fidler, she was Brittanie Chabot’s mother.
“My mom was simply making her way back to her camp on the Bow River, because my mom was homeless.”
According to Chabot, her mother suffered from addiction most of her life but she spiraled following the sudden death of her son, Brittanie’s brother, and she ended up living in an tent along the Bow River for close to a year. Loved ones collected Marlene’s belongings after she died.
“It made me really emotional to know that’s how my mom lived.”
Brittanie said she grew up in Florida but moved back to Alberta in her 20’s, she reconnected with Marlene 15-years-ago and felt fortunate to have her back.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
“I finally got that missing piece I wanted my whole life and that was to have a mom,” she said, trying to hold back tears.
Marlene was hospitalized last May, her daughter came to see her, unaware it would be for the last time.
“That was the best day of my life,” she paused, “I never got to see my mom sober until that day, she loved hard, she was such an amazing person when she was sober,” she added. “I wish I got to spend more time with her.”
Police are still investigating the Oct. 4 collision, but said alcohol and speed have been ruled out as factors. So far no charges have been laid. Brittanie Chabot doesn’t want anyone to forget her mother’s name.
“I want everyone to know she was a human being, despite the lifestyle that she lived, she was my mom, and she was taken from me and I’ll never get her back,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.
“I would like to say to the gentleman that hit my mom I hope you find some solace and some peace within yourself because know it’s probably heavy on your heart, but you took my mom away from me.”
Chabot said her only solace is knowing her mom is now free from the pain of her addiction and loss.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
