FERGUS – Dave Genereaux was a loving husband, doting new father and “all around awesome guy.
“He’s going to be missed a lot,” his wife Sabrina Genereaux said tearfully on Dec. 31.
Two days earlier, Dave died in a crash on Highway 6 between Fergus and Guelph.
Police say he was heading south when his SUV collided head-on with a pickup truck at around 10:30am.
His son, Jason Genereaux, was born four weeks early on Oct. 27, and Dave was nervous to hold him at first, Sabrina said, but by December she saw her husband’s confidence blossom.
Though Dave had never held a baby, changed a diaper or made a bottle, Sabrina said he “tried so hard at being a dad.”
The preterm baby has been strong from the get-go, able to hold his own head up within the first few days, Sabrina said.
And now, “He’s starting to smile,” she said, looking with adoration across the living room at her son, nestled in the arms of her best friend, Alicia Curry.
Sabrina and Curry have been friends for 29 years, since they were six- and seven-year-old kids living in Elora.
Dave Genereaux resembled both his son Jason and father Brian, his wife says. Submitted photo
Sabrina said Dave always made Jason’s bottles and helped to feed him – “Even if I didn’t want help, he would just sit with me in the night and talk to me.”
Dave talked to Jason too, including about all the pranks they would play on Sabrina when Jason grows up.
Curry said without Dave there to lead the shenanigans, she would help Jason pull those pranks.
Jason is “everything we hoped for and more,” Sabrina said; a great baby who loves cuddles and is very wanted and spoiled.
Dave and Sabrina spent six years trying to conceive, going through two miscarriages and multiple rounds of in vitro fertilization.
When they finally got to meet their son, they chose Brian for his middle name, in honour of Dave’s late father.
“Dave and his dad looked so much alike,” Sabrina said, and Jason resembles both of them.
Family man
Dave was “very family oriented,” Sabrina said, and he was still grieving his dad, who passed away in 2018.
Sabrina and Dave met in 2014, and couldn’t get enough of each other from the first moment.
What began as a first date to go out for ice cream continued for 12 hours straight, and they’ve been partners ever since.
Dave proposed after a year of dating, and they got married two years after that.
When Dave decided to request Sabrina’s father’s permission for marriage, he was so nervous he almost couldn’t bring himself to ask.
Sabrina’s dad was working in the garden, and Sabrina watched from the kitchen window as Dave followed him around before finally mustering the courage to ask the big question.
“Your parents really loved him,” Curry told Sabrina. “They were proud of him.”
Sabrina, Dave and Jason spent their final Christmas together surrounded by family – with her parents in Elora and his brother in Guelph.
Dave and Sabrina moved to Fergus in 2018, after living in Guelph for a few years.
Curry said Dave always wanted to surprise Sabrina to show his love.
Recently, Dave wanted to pick up a drink from Starbucks as a treat for Sabrina, but didn’t want to ask what she’d like and ruin the surprise. So he called Curry to ask what drink he should choose.
“That was the last time I spoke to him,” Curry said.
A nerd – ‘in the best way’
Dave Genereaux will be deeply missed by members of his paintball team, who were like a second family to him. Genereaux died in a car crash on Dec. 29. Submitted photo
Sabrina said her husband was loving, sweet, caring, and “tried so hard at everything he did.”
Dave worked as a welder at Jaylor, near Orton, making spreaders and mixers for farmers.
“He always offered up time for anyone who needed it,” Sabrina said.
“He’s going to be really missed at paintball – that was his second family,” she added. “The guys would say ‘he would give you his shirt off his back.’”
Dave played paintball with the Taskforce Raiders and Unkind Special Operations Group.
He loved cats, especially his two, Firefly and K9.
He was a huge Doctor Who fan and “was always asking to watch Star Wars,” Sabrina said. And he was “one of those ‘Die Hard is a Christmas movie’ guys.”
“He was a big nerd,” she chuckled, and Curry added, “in the best way.”
Curry said Dave wasn’t very talkative, but “when he came out of his shell” he was hilarious.
After Jason’s birth, Sabrina said Dave was excited about the new scope for his comedy – “‘I’m a dad now, I can tell dad jokes,” he would say with a laugh.
Community support
Sabrina said the support she has received from the community in the days following Dave’s death has been incredible.
“It’s been crazy. I didn’t expect nearly what it is … So many people reached out to me,” she said.
“It’s because you guys touched so many lives,” Curry assured Sabrina.
Belwood resident Heather Verbeek is one of the community members organizing support for the Genereaux family.
“I’ve never met her in my life,” Sabrina said. “She just reached out to me and asked if there was anything I needed for the baby or anything like that.”
The generosity of a complete stranger left Sabrina momentarily speechless.
Verbeek said she was driving to Guelph with her husband when they had to detour around a road closure on Highway 6.
She said they knew right away “it couldn’t be good,” and when she got home and read on Facebook about Dave’s death her “heart just broke.”
So she jumped into action – “It just called to me that something needed to be done. I thought I could rally the community to support.”
She’s helping the Genereaux family with immediate needs, collecting diapers, wipes, formula, meals and gift cards.
Verbeek knows what it’s like to receive community support and is happy to return the favour.
When her husband had a heart attack three years ago, people donated meals and money.
“It takes a community when something like this happens, and we’re lucky to have a very good one,” she noted.
So far the donations include $200 from China 8 Fergus, where Dave was a regular customer, as well as contributions from other local businesses and community members.
Fergus resident Dave Genereaux died in a car accident on Highway 6 on Dec. 29.
Verbeek works as a professional support worker, and offered to visit Sabrina to help by cuddling Jason or cleaning their apartment.
“This baby … their miracle baby … will grow up now without a father,” Verbeek said, her voice thick with emotion.
“I just want [Sabrina] to know the community is there for her, here and down the road.”
To offer meals, gift cards or baby supplies to Sabrina and Jason, contact Verbeek at verbeekheather@yahoo.ca.
Sabrina’s friend Kimberley Atkinson Lowe set up a GoFundMe account to support the Genereaux family.
Sabrina said Atkinson Lowe is her “baseball mom,” a member of the Guelph Ladies Slo-Pitch League Sabrina has played in for years.
They play on the “Bat Attitude” team, and Dave attended all their games, often scorekeeping.
“Games won’t be the same without him there,” Atkinson Lowe said.
She called Dave a “real good guy who would do anything for anyone,” and said it’s devastating his son won’t have a chance to get to know him.
Dave “won’t be there to teach him paintball, or show him off at baseball,” she said.
With Jason’s birth “finally [Dave and Sabrina’s] dreams came true,” said Atkinson Lowe, but then tragedy hit.
She said the couple was great together and Dave and Sabrina are “the most kind people in the world.” That’s why she didn’t hesitate to set up the fundraiser.
Financial support “is not going to bring him back,” she said, “but it could ease that little bit of burden.”
As of 1pm on Jan. 1, the campaign raised $15,170. To contribute visit gofund.me/32015c96.
