TORONTO - Family and friends of Dianne Trottier gathered at a Toronto funeral home on the weekend to mark the life of the 33-year-old woman who died after a car struck her while crossing a Fredericton intersection in her motorized wheelchair.
As investigators in this city continued to search for the hit-and-run driver, loved ones remembered the Toronto woman as a lively person who had a lust for life and wouldn't let anything slow her down.
Trottier, a television producer who was working temporarily at the CBC in Fredericton, was hit by the vehicle on the night of Aug. 29. She died from her injuries the next day.
Michael D'Souza, a friend and colleague of Trottier's, said mourners chose to focus on the woman and not the way she died.
"She was remembered for her grit, her wit and her charm," said D'Souza, a producer for CBC television. "She was a person everybody loved."
Trottier had a genetic disorder, osteogenesis imperfecta, more commonly known as brittle bone disease.
"She did not see it as an adversity," D'Souza said. "It was just a great life and she was going to live it to the fullest, and that she did."
Friends recalled her love of travelling and her passion for power-wheelchair hockey, a game that isn't for the faint of heart.
"It's fast and fun and she played a rough game," he said.
