A Guelph woman has written a poem to the man who almost killed her and her children earlier this week.
On Tuesday evening, Brittany Campagnolo, an ICU nurse, was in the car with her two sons, six and three, when a man driving what police say was a stolen SUV crashed into her on Norfolk Street.
She and her two children were taken to hospital. Luckily, there were no serious injuries, although Campagnolo does have a concussion. The single mother now usually spends her time sitting in a dark room physically unable to work.
“He changed several people’s lives that day and he didn’t even think twice about doing it because I know he’s done it before,” cried Campagnolo.
“People keep telling me that 'I'm lucky' and 'I'm lucky to be alive,' but I am certainly not lucky.”
With constant headaches, trouble hearing, brain fog, nightmares and body pain, Campagnolo’s time alone prompted her to write a poem to the man that hit her car. She said those few seconds changed her and her childrens’ life forever and she wants him to see how.
‘To the man who stole from my family,’ the poem begins. It then talks about how the man stole her child’s dreams and replaced them with nightmares.
Campagnolo then describes how she feels deprived of her sense of safety and how she was terrified in the car looking to see if her children were still alive after the accident. She talks about being unable to work, unable to celebrate her son’s birthday the next day and the need to now fill her future with physiotherapy.
She ends the poem by calling on the man to fix his ways and make amends to the people he has wronged.
Guelph police charged the man with 15 offences and reported they found purple fentanyl in the accused's vehicle following the arrest.
Campagnolo said the accident left her with physical and emotional repercussions. Prior to the accident, she worked two jobs, one as an ICU nurse at the Guelph General Hospital and one as a teacher in a nursing college.
She said one of her jobs offers to cover partial costs related to long-term disability and her car insurance will provide up to $400 a week for employment and income loss.
“It’s going to be hard to pay the bills after with just $400,” said Campagnolo.
Campagnolo shared her poem:
To the man..
To the man who stole from my family
Without ever meeting us
Even the smallest things
Are now painful and strenuous
You stole my son’s dreams
Replaced them with nightmares
You made the decision to drive high
Without even a care
You stole my sense of safety
Replaced it with horrible flashbacks
I see a flash of a black loud bang
And then the car is spinning after impact
I remember looking back
To see if my kids were still alive
They are screaming in terror
Thank god we have survived
An angel must have been watching
We should have died that day
I’ll never forget
June 1, the day my life changed
People say we are lucky
I suppose you could say that
Or maybe it shouldn’t have happened at all
I wish we could chat
I’d tell you that you’ve left me laying in a dark room
Unable to look at the light
Why does my family deserve this
Nothing about this is right
I won’t be able to work
I’m a nurse in the ICU
I can barely turn in my own bed
A 12-hour shift I won’t be able to do
You took my income
I’m a single mom
How will I pay my bills
Where did you go wrong?
My future will be full of physio and therapy
Instead of spending time with my children
Can I ask you a question?
Aren’t you tired of being the villain?
I missed my son turning 6
Because I couldn’t get out of bed
I could fill an ocean
From all the tears that were shed
I wish I felt sorry for you
But I just can’t bring myself to do so
The anger rises again
Every time I look at the crushed car photo
We were just heading home from the park
Singing along to the Minions carefree
When you decided you had the right
To go on a crime spree
I will never feel safe
Getting in another car
You stole that from me
And I hope you are tucked away behind bars
You are lucky
You don’t have dead bodies on your conscience
I hope you pay for what you’ve done
But now you have some options
Turn your damn life around
You have a lot of life left to live
Make amends to all the people you’ve wronged
And maybe one day we will forgive
