She faced life with a smile - Soldier's widow killed in eerily similar accident
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lindor Reynolds
Two years after her soldier husband was killed when his armoured vehicle crashed and rolled in Afghanistan, Daphne Wilson has died in an eerily similar accident.
Sunday afternoon, the Wawanesa woman lost control of her sport utility vehicle on a gravel road near her rural home. The blue Ford Escape rolled into a ditch and Wilson, 35, was killed instantly.
Her 16-year-old daughter, Sheralynn, was with her, but escaped with minor injuries. Wilson is also survived by her son, Jesse, 12.
Master Cpl. Tim Wilson, a native of Langruth, was taken off life support in a German military hospital in March 2006, two days after his accident.
Daphne Wilson's death is a stunning blow to her family and friends.
Monday, they remembered her as a free spirit who worked through her grief at losing Tim and emerged as a strong, funny survivor.
"It's kind of hard to put it into words," said Viola Bauer, Wilson's best friend. "Daphne was a very giving and generous soul. She was so kind.
"She was always there for everybody. She would always tell you how important it was to do things for yourself." Funeral arrangements are pending. Friends did not know Monday who would raise Wilson's children.
Aimee Hampton, whose military husband was at Tim Wilson's bedside in the German hospital while medics waited for Daphne and Tim's mother to arrive, said the young widow's strength was an inspiration to all military wives.
"She was able to face all the adversity with a smile on her face," Hampton said. "She always made sure their house was filled with laughter. She tried so hard to make it good for her kids. For her to go on and be so kooky for her kids, she was really something." Viola Bauer and Wilson worked together as "passion party" consultants, selling sexual aids and toys to women at home parties. The pair was supposed to be in Saskatchewan this weekend working a bridal show.
"Daphne is a remarkable woman," Bauer said yesterday. "She helped so many women." Many Shilo wives laugh when they talk about meeting Wilson at a home party. She had a knack for putting people at ease, they say, and a flamboyance that made her the centre of attention.
"She was one of those women you hear about even before you meet them," friend Diane Keefe said. "She had a presence." Wilson's Facebook page paints a picture of a woman living life to the fullest. In addition to the passion parties, she had a fascination with tattoos, using her body as a canvas. Bauer starts to weep when she talks about the wings Wilson had inked on her back.
"Maybe that's how she's soaring now," Bauer said.
After Tim was killed, Daphne had an infinity symbol tattooed on her wrist. The marking, she told her friend, was to symbolize her relationship with her husband.
She also has the words "my life is my message" written on the inside of her arm after the Afghanistan death.
"Now that tattoo means a whole lot more," Bauer said. "The way she lived, the joy she had and her strength, that's what we're going to remember." Wilson developed a fascination with India in the months following Tim's death, said Bauer, and made two trips there. Wilson said she was trying to find herself, a constant journey to make sense of a life that had been rocked by tragedy.
"She never stopped talking about Tim," Bauer said. "Lately it seemed like she was talking about him more and more. I'd talk about my husband and she'd say, 'You know what Tim and I did?' He was always there." Wilson's friends hope her children will be able to follow their mother's example and emerge from their grief to remember their mother as a woman who laughed loudly and loved greatly.
They hope her wings will take her home to Tim.
