It's never easy to say goodbye, but the opportunity to have those last words is priceless. Felicia Creaser remembers vividly the day she said farewell to her mom.
“I love you mommy,” she said. Her mom, Linda Bujold, was hooked up to apparatuses that prevented her from talking at all, but Creaser knows Bujold heard her loud and clear.
When Bujold was driving home to Espanola from work in Sudbury on Dec. 1, 2012, she was involved in a car accident. Creaser and her family were travelling the opposite direction, and drove right past the scene. They couldn't see the vehicles involved, so had no way of knowing Bujold was part of it. It wasn't until a few hours later that she received a phone call, explaining her mom was at the hospital.
At the time of the accident, Bujold was fully conscious.
“She didn't have any head injuries,” Creaser said. Bujold was speaking fluently to the first response team, and even told them Creaser's cell phone number. It wasn't until she got to the hospital that things took a turn for the worse.
During the five days she spent there, Bujold received 40 units of blood. Some were given to her during surgery, and others before and after.
“The blood would have saved her,” Creaser recalled. “It was her health issues she wouldn't recover from.”
It was those transfusions that allowed Bujold to stay alive long enough to be surrounded and comforted by her family. Five days after the accident, Bujold succumbed to her injuries, but not before hearing the comforting words of those she was closest to.
“The blood did what it was supposed to do,” Creaser said.
In honour of Bujold, the family is hosting three special blood donor clinics. They are hoping to collect 40 units in Bujold's name, to account for the units she used to stay alive those precious extra days.
Dates for clinics in Elliot Lake and Sudbury have passed, but donors are invited to give for Bujold Jan. 24 at the Espanola Knights of Columbus Hall. The clinic will be open from 11:20 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and again from 4 to 7 p.m. Donors interested in giving there, or at the permanent clinic at 235 Cedar St. in Sudbury, are welcome to phone 1-888-236-6283.
