Kandi Gorko had just woken up Wednesday when she received the phone call every parent dreads — her teenage son had been killed in a car crash earlier that morning. Read More
’I’ve never experienced pain this deep. It’s been gut-wrenching … One minute I can’t breathe and the next minute I’m laughing and remembering him’
‘I’ve never experienced pain this deep. It’s been gut-wrenching … One minute I can’t breathe and the next minute I’m laughing and remembering him’
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Kandi Gorko had just woken up Wednesday when she received the phone call every parent dreads — her teenage son had been killed in a car crash earlier that morning.
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“That was the worst day of my life. Like a nightmare I’m still not able to wake up from,” she said.
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Her son, 16-year-old Saxon Halfyard, was killed in a collision in the northbound lanes of Crowchild Trail S.W. between 50th Avenue and Flanders Avenue S.W. early Wednesday morning.
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Since then, Gorko says she’s been coping with the unimaginable loss “one second at a time.”
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“I’ve never experienced pain this deep. It’s been gut-wrenching,” she said. “One minute I can’t breathe and the next minute I’m laughing and remembering him.”
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Gorko has been finding comfort in speaking with Saxon’s friends and hearing stories from a wide circle of people who loved him.
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She described her son as a king and gentle young man, someone who went out of his way to include others and make them feel seen.
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As a child, Saxon made a point of ensuring there were supplies in the car for people who were “down on their luck,” Gorko said. She recalled how Saxon would hand out items to people who appeared to be struggling in winter weather, whether it be food, clothing or even just the 25 cents he had in his pocket.
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“He’d want to make sure to give them a cup of coffee or a pair of socks,” she recalled.
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“He really touched a lot of people.”
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Saxon was known as someone who made friends with “outsiders” and went out of his way to bring them into the fold, his mom said.
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“He reached a lot of kids at school,” she said.
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Gorko hopes her son is remembered for being “funny, silly and full of life.”
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“He was a shining light,” she said. “Loved by so many.”
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Saxon loved camping with his step-dad, skateboarding with “his boys,” listening to music and spending time by a campfire — but one of his greatest loves, Gorko said, was fishing.
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During family trips to Mara Lake, Saxon would wake up at 5 a.m. to cast his line off the balcony, staying there for hours on end, she said.
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“It was just who he was. He just wanted to be out catching fish,” Gorko said, noting Saxon enjoyed being in nature.
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One memory that sticks out was a day when Saxon, then about 12, helped a stranger reel in a “monster fish” after the man jumped into the water to bring it in by hand.