I am sorry to read about this: http://www.windsorstar.com/nursing+s...121/story.html
From hardened criminals to dying babies, Dianne Paquette cared for them all with the same gentle hand.
Paquette, 60, and her husband Roy Paquette, 58, were pronounced dead at the scene after a tractor trailer crossed the median on Highway 401 and slammed into their pickup truck. News of the tragedy was just beginning to spread Thursday afternoon at the University of Windsor, where Dianne was a sessional nursing instructor.
"We're devastated with the loss," said Linda Patrick, dean of nursing at U of W. "We're just hearing of the loss. We're just very sad. We're just lost right now. We are really going to miss her. She was a fabulous teacher and friend and colleague."
The collision happened around 6 p.m. Wednesday near Chatham, just west of the Ridgetown exit 109. Ontario Provincial Police said the Paquettes, who lived in Highgate, were headed east when the westbound tractor trailer smashed into them.
The truck driver, Raymond Harper, 53, from Croton, Ont., was taken to hospital where he was listed in serious condition Thursday.
Sgt. David Rektor with the OPP said investigators were still trying to determine Thursday what caused the crash, but he added it was not weather related. Police ask anyone who witnessed the collision to call them at 1-888-310-1122.
Patrick said Dianne Paquette was originally from Australia, where she worked as a midwife and a public health nurse in prisons. She moved to Toronto and by 2003 was working in the neonatal intensive care unit for newborns at the Hospital for Sick Children.
Paquette started as a sessional instructor in the U of W's undergraduate programs in 2006. Patrick said her duties included community health nursing and working with students at Windsor Regional Hospital.
"It didn't take her long to make friends and she was very popular with the students and the other sessional instructors because she was so great to work with," said Patrick, a member of the team that hired Paquette.
Patrick said she still remembers what sold her on bringing the woman on board, besides Paquette's "extensive nursing career."
"She had a tremendous sense of humour and she was extremely passionate about her work," said Patrick.
"She was a very positive person about her own life and about inspiring her students to also have a very positive outlook toward the profession of nursing. She was passionate about what she did and she wanted them to know that and she wanted them to be passionate."
Patrick said Paquette's passion went beyond nursing.
"She could make you laugh, she was just a very engaging personality," said Patrick. "Just a very friendly, outgoing, passionate nurse. Passionate about her profession, but also as a human being, she was really nice to know and really nice to be around. You could be down in the dumps one day, but she could lift your spirits."
Dianne Paquette, left, and her husband Roy were killed Wednesday near Chatham when a tractor trailer slammed into their pickup truck.
