A yellow urn engraved with a flock of birds flying away sits next to Brittanie Chabot. She always keeps him close.
“This is what I have left of my mother now, and it saddens me, we are all devastated,” she said from her home in Lloydminster.
On October 4, 2024, a 57-year-old woman was struck by a GMC pickup truck on a street in southeast Calgary. Police said the driver remained at the scene but the pedestrian died at hospital. Her name was Marlène Fidler, she was the mother of Brittanie Chabot.
“My mother was just going back to her camp on the Bow River because she was homeless. »
According to Chabot, her mother suffered from addiction for most of her life, but experienced a dramatic spiral after the sudden death of her son, Brittanie’s brother, and she ended up living in a tent along the Bow River for almost a year. Relatives collected Marlene’s belongings after her death.
“It made me very emotional to know that my mother lived like this.”
“This is all I have left,” said Brittanie Chabot, sitting in front of an urn containing the ashes of her mother, Marlene Fidler, 57, who died when she was hit by a pickup truck on a south-west street. east of Calgary. October 2024.
Courtesy: Brittanie Chabot
Brittanie said she grew up in Florida, but moved back to Alberta in her 20s. She reconnected with Marlene 15 years ago and felt lucky to have her back.
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“I finally got that missing piece that I wanted my whole life and that was to have a mom,” she said, trying to hold back tears.
Marlène was hospitalized last May, her daughter came to see her, unaware that it would be the last time.
“It was the best day of my life,” she paused, “I never saw my mother sober until that day, she was very loving, she was such an amazing person when she was sober,” she added. “I wish I could spend more time with her.”
Marlene Fidler suffered from addiction for most of her life and was living in a tent along the Bow River in Calgary at the time of her death. But despite the lifestyle she led, Chabot said Fidler was still her mother and she didn’t deserve to die like her.
Courtesy: Brittanie Chabot
Police are still investigating the Oct. 4 collision but said alcohol and speed have been ruled out. So far, no charges have been filed. Brittanie Chabot doesn’t want us to forget her mother’s first name.
Marlene Fidler, 57, died after being struck by a pickup truck at 50th Avenue and 23rd Street SE in Calgary on October 4, 2024.
Global News
“I want everyone to know that she was a human being, despite the lifestyle she led, that she was my mother, that she was taken from me and that I will never get her back,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.
“I would like to say to the gentleman who hit my mother, I hope you find some comfort and some peace within yourself, because please know that this probably tugs at your heart, but you took my mother away from me .”
Chabot said her only comfort is knowing her mother is now free from the pain of her addiction and loss.
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