FARMINGTON — Taylor Gaboury’s Facebook page at 11:49 a.m. on Dec. 31 shared a link with a photo of an ambulance and a message to those considering driving while intoxicated: “Happy New Year’s Eve: Remember it takes 23,647 bolts to put a car together, but only one nut to spread them all over the highway. Don’t drink and drive!”
About 12 hours later, Gaboury, 21, of Farmington, was struck and killed by an alleged drunken driver as she walked home along Route 2 in Farmington early on New Year’s Day.
Her father said the post was the last one she wrote.
A week after the crash that claimed the life of their daughter, Ricky Gaboury and Tena Trask, of Farmington, are realizing the scope of kindness that she showed to people during her 21 years.
“I knew she was amazing,” Trask said. “Being her parents, we obviously knew and thought she was an amazing person with a great soul, but people are coming forward and telling us these stories that we never knew about.”
The parents affixed flowers and photos to a roadside memorial Thursday afternoon along the section of Route 2 where their daughter was killed.
Gaboury was walking to her parents’ house when she was killed about 1:40 a.m. near Franklin Memorial Hospital.
“She was coming home to us in Farmington. She wanted to be where she felt safe, with her mom and dad,” Trask said Thursday.
When police found Gaboury, they couldn’t identify her because she didn’t have a phone or identification. Her parents tentatively identified her the night of Jan. 1, and after an autopsy her identity was confirmed Monday.
Her parents don’t know why she didn’t have her phone or ID, or why she didn’t call anyone to come get her instead of walking.
One thing Ricky Gaboury and Trask want people to take away from their daughter’s death is that it “was a 100 percent preventable” death, Trask said.
“I’m really just hoping that through this people will just start to think before they get behind the wheel or go off walking,” she said. “Call me. I’ll give them my number. I’ll go get anybody.”
Tommy Clark, 25, of Industry, was charged in connection with the fatal hit-and-run. Charges include aggravated criminal operating under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident involving serious injury or death.
Clark told police he was aware he’d hit a person with his car and went down the embankment where the body lay and “tried to wake her up,” but he concluded she was dead and fled, police said. Bail for Clark was set at $75,000 Monday.
‘THE KIND OF PERSON I STRIVE TO BE’
Gaboury, a 2012 graduate of Mt. Blue High School, made it a point to accept everyone, her parents said. Since her death, people have contacted them to tell stories about how Taylor’s kindness affected their lives.
One young man whom Gaboury had met through school sent Trask a Facebook message, telling her about moving out of the area while in high school. He was concerned, since he didn’t have many friends, that he wouldn’t be accepted at his new school. He said Gaboury reassured him that he was going to be accepted for who he was.
Another former classmate told Ricky Gaboury that when he was left out at school, she would sit with him, letting him know that he did have friends and people who cared about him.
“She just had that ability to have the right words at the right time, whatever the situation was,” Trask said. “She loved with her whole heart. She accepted people – no judgment.”
Whenever there was a chance to give back or convey acts of kindness, Gaboury’s parents said she jumped on board, especially when it concerned children. She was the godmother of her boyfriend’s nephew.
“She spoke of him daily – every little thing, every detail about this child,” Ricky Gaboury said. “She just put her all into loving that kid. I was looking forward to her as a mother, knowing how much she loved children.”
Taylor Gaboury also donated to the food pantry, donated clothes, collected can tabs for their recycling value to go toward charity and participated in the Franklin County group Buttons for Babes.
“Taylor was the kind of person I always strive to be,” said Jamie Medrano, her cousin. “She didn’t do it to get anything out of it. She didn’t want recognition. There aren’t a lot of people like that anymore.”
ADVENTUROUS SPIRIT
In high school, Gaboury played field hockey and softball, but Trask said she also participated in activities outside the school.
“She liked everything. She was an adventurer,” Trask said. “She loved it all. She loved life.”
Trask said her daughter loved camping, kayaking, four-wheeling and even cliff-jumping. “She was a little adrenaline junkie, just like her dad,” Ricky Gaboury said.
After high school, she got an apartment in Farmington with her boyfriend, Jacob Malone. Then they moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, where Malone had gotten a job. The couple had moved back to the area recently and were living with his parents in East Wilton.
Recently, Gaboury was trying to get into an engineering program that specialized in clean energy.
“She was very conscious about the environment and the world as a whole,” Ricky Gaboury said. “That was part of her trying to help out.”
‘I CRY EVERY MORNING’
Gaboury’s memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Farmington Baptist Church on Whittier Road. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations to the Taylor Gaboury Scholarship Fund be made by contacting Skowhegan Savings bank.
Busy making funeral arrangements, Ricky Gaboury said he doesn’t feel he’s gotten the chance to grieve over the loss of his daughter.
“It’s unbelievable how much you have to deal with shortly after someone’s death,” he said. “But I cry every morning … and every night when I go to bed.”
“The grief comes in waves,” Trask said. “I still can’t believe she’s gone.”
Trask saw Malone on Wednesday night and said he’s having an especially hard time with the loss of his girlfriend of five years.
“He basically sleeps,” Trask said. “He sleeps because that’s the only time he sees her, and he gets aggravated when people try to wake him up.” Like the rest of their family, Trask said, “he’s broken.”
Medrano, her cousin, said Gaboury didn’t deserve to die the way she did, and so soon, “but if anyone deserved a spot in heaven, it was her.”
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