SUBMITTED PHOTO
Family, friends and community members will release sky lanterns Saturday night in memory of David White, who died in a car accident on Aug. 13. White is pictured here with his girlfriend, Marissa Parsons.
Just one week after the 20-year-old lost his life in a car accident, family, friends and community members will release sky lanterns into the night.
Alexandra Mogus, a friend and former girlfriend of White’s, is organizing the event, which will take place at the Gros Morne Regional Complex. The celebration will follow White’s funeral, which is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. at Green Point.
Mogus said she and White had been best friends for seven years.
“He was super friendly, he loved everybody,” she said of the guy with the big heart and just as big sense of humour.
“He was super protective, anybody who he cared about he was protective of them.”
In the days before White’s death the friends had talked about taking Mogus’s little brother to Thomas Amusements, the travelling amusement park featuring rides and games is currently set up in Corner Brook.
But on Aug. 13 White was a passenger in a car driven by Nicholas Shears-Decker that went off the road near St. Paul’s at 11:15 p.m.
Shears-Decker, 25, is also from Rocky Harbour. He’s been charged with impaired driving causing death, failure to provide a breath sample and two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm. Two other passengers in the car, a man and a woman, sustained non-life threatening injuries
Mogus got home from work at 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, and word of the accident had already started to spread. Her husband waited up to find out what happened and at 6 a.m. told her White had died.
“I felt numb,” she said. “I screamed and I cried.”
The shock she felt extends into the community.
“A lot of us are really, really angry with Nick. Which, I mean, is understandable,” she said.
“I was really angry with him too that night.”
But now as she remembers her friend, she’s trying to move on to forgiveness.
“It wasn’t all of Nick’s fault. Everybody who got into that car was given a choice and they all made the wrong choice.”
She said it’s tragic on all sides as the two young men were the best of friends.
“They did everything together. You saw one, you saw the other.”
While it’s hard to think and talk about, Mogus feels it’s still necessary to repeat the standard “please don’t drink and drive” message.
“When you’re drinking give your keys to somebody. Just think about your family members when you’re getting aboard with anybody who is drinking and driving.”
As for Saturday night’s event, Mogus said the idea really came from White.
When he turned 18, he bought a pile of fireworks to celebrate and some of the unused ones and lanterns are still around.
“It seems like his footprint,” said Mogus.
She has ordered 125 sky lanterns from Good Buddy Sports in Corner Brook for the event. The company has provided the lanterns at a discount and she will be accepting donations from people who want to release one. The money raised will go to White’s family.
She’d like people gather at the centre at 9 p.m. and between 9:30-9:45 p.m. they’ll start the release.
