( Read in court February 13/04)
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John will never bring a woman home for us to meet or say " hey Mom I'm engaged", he'll never have kids. He can't even just kiss me, say " I love ya Mom" or just sit and watch a Leaf's hockey game with me again.
I will never know the joy of seeing, holding or kissing a child of John's. And here I am today the 13th of February which is exactly 21 years ago to the day that I brought my new born son, John Michael Rolf deNeef ,home from the hospital and now I am standing here reading a victim impact statement.
I lost John's Dad to cancer when John was just a little boy and although that was terribly painful it doesn't even come close to the pain and horror of losing MY SON! Burying a child is so unatural, our children are supposed to bury us. We should never have to bury our kids especially when this was completely unnecessary and could have been avoided. Although John died instantly, he was given CPR by his friend Matti and then the ambulance attendents when they arrived. John was then taken to Royal Victoria hospital in Barrie. Then I was informed that something serious had happened to my son. When I arrived I was told that John was brain dead and on artificial life support. After being taken to the room where John was and I gave a positive identification of me son's body, the Doctor asked me for permission to stop life support. I just couldn't accept that so I told the Dr. to send John somewhere/anywhere else for another opinion. Then I asked for a Priest to come and give my son his Last Rites. When that was done John was airlifted to Sunnybrooke Medical center. When we arrived there , again I was told that John was gone and that I would have to the Dr. permission to stop life support and would I be willing to let John be an organ donor and NO parent should ever have to put in that postion, especially when all this was so damned preventable!
I have always agreed that both boys made poor choices in fighting that night, but John shouldn't be dead because of that..........John wasn't a Saint here and I don't imagine he is one now. He was a regular kid that loved his family, friends, enjoyed life and died way too soon!
Our lives have been torn apart because of this, marriages and families can fall apart due to the stress of living this nightmare. We got a life sentence because John went to a party, we don't get paroled. time served, time off for good behavior or probation. WE GOT A LIFE SENTENCE!!!!!!! I will never again be able to go out in the community and do normal daily things without looking to see who is near me or my kids or hearing some person say " hey that's the Mother of the kid that got killed at that house party".
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