Paule Seeger is working hard to keep her son’s memory alive.
Oct. 22 marked two years since the then 15-year-old Tristan died as a result of injuries sustained from being struck by a vehicle at Kelowna’s Ben Lee Park.
To honour her son on the second anniversary of his death, Seeger invited family and friends to the park to enjoy some of Tristan’s favourite things.
“Tristan, he loved Ben Lee,” said Seeger as she thanked the city for allowing her to use the park for the gathering. “As a kid, he did his birthday parties here, as a teenager, he did his skateboarding here.”
Hosting the memorial gathering in the same park where Tristan was hit is a way for Seeger to take back control, she said.
“We’re not remembering it as this horrible situation, because it was. It was so traumatic not only to us, but to the entire community. So, what we’ve tried to do each year is celebrate [Tristan] and make it joyous… We’re trying to remember the good aspects of this park because it was such a big part of his life and a huge piece of his heart.”
People started to arrive at the north end of the park at about 4 p.m., close to the skatepark where Seeger had arranged live music, a pop-up vintage clothing shop and a sign-up for stem cell registry.
“It’s something very close to my heart, because it was plasma that gave us those precious hours with Tristan,” she said.
Seeger ran a plasma drive from Oct. 21-22 in Tristan’s memory, noting that it was blood and plasma donations through Canadian Blood Services that kept her son alive in the hospital long enough for the family to say their goodbyes. To give back, Seeger invited Canadian Blood Services to set up a tent to promote the stem cell registry and get more people on board.
Tristan was struck by a vehicle near the south side of Ben Lee Park on Oct. 21, 2023 and died the following day in hospital. On Oct. 23, 2023, RCMP announced they would be investigating the teen’s death as a homicide.
Brandon Kazakoff is facing charges of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death, failure to stop or remain at the scene of a crash, and assault with a weapon in relation to Tristan’s death. None of the charges has been proven in court.