Remembering Luke Charpentier, 2 years after deadly crash

A sentencing last week in Calgary brought the criminal case to a close, but it changes little for the family still living without Luke Charpentier, who died in a car crash two summers ago in Alberta at age 21.

Last week, a judge sentenced Luke's cousin, 20-year-old Dylan Charpentier, to one year in jail and five years without a driver's licence after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death. Two other charges related to drunk driving were withdrawn.

Luke's mother, Judith McNicol, didn't expect to find closure through the legal process, but she can't stomach the thought of anyone left with the impression that her son died after a reckless joyride.

"He was the best in all of us," says McNicol, who's still trying to digest what exactly happened the day that changed her life.

The family got the call in Yellowknife in the early morning hours of August 30, 2014. They chartered a plane and were at his side in a Calgary hospital when his heart stopped later that day.

If not for the crash, McNicol says, her son would have gone on to finish studying carpentry, marry the girlfriend he'd known since they were babies, take over his childhood home and start a business and a family.

"The whole community has lost Luke."

'A real Canadian guy'

Luke was the second of four children, growing up in a tight-knit family just up the street from his elementary school.

"He was a real Canadian guy," says McNicol in her Scottish lilt, still evident after decades in Yellowknife herself. "A very Northern boy. Luke loved it here."

Luke was the one who would load up all the wood for a bonfire party out in the woods, she says. He loved playing hockey and snowmobiling, working on his motorcycle and watching sports.

"He would wake me up to show me the Northern lights."

During the wildfire season of 2014, on a day that Yellowknifers heralded as the Apocalypse, storm clouds mixed with smoke to create red lightning, and a real sense of danger. Luke was the one who gathered the whole family together to make sure everyone was safe.

"That was how he was," McNicol says.

He had deep Northern roots. His great, great aunt designed the Yellowknife Coat of Arms, which hangs in council chambers, from scraps of wood found near the shack she was living in at Negus Point. "Luke was extremely proud of this connection."

He also helped McNicol build her two Yellowknife businesses — Taiga Yoga and the Iceblink clothing store — spending long hours painting and prepping.

"He was very close to me," McNicol says. "And very protective of me. And very proud of me.

"We were just really, really good friends."

'Luke was there to help'

In August of 2014, Luke was staying at his aunt's farm near Castor, Alta., where he'd been helping out because his uncle had died in May of that year.

He and his cousin Dylan had been at a party. Afterwards, they were dropped off at Dylan's home, two kilometres away. Some time later, Dylan got behind the wheel of a truck to give Luke a ride to the farm where he was staying.

The crash happened just outside the farm gate, flinging both young men out of the vehicle.

McNicol says Luke died because he wanted to live up to his word. 

"He needed to get to that farm to do the chores because if that's what he said he was going to do, he was going to do it."

It was all part and parcel with the boy she knew as "Mr. Fastidious." "Mom, how long do I brush my teeth for?" she recalls him asking.

"Luke was there to help, as he always did."