Brian Patchett was on his way to a bright future.
He was just two credits away from earning his high school diploma, and had aspirations to become a chef or a doctor.
He was the doting father of two young children, and he and his wife, Liz Squires, were looking forward to celebrating their fifth anniversary on Oct. 7.
Instead, Squires is now coping with the death of her husband in a single-car crash Sunday morning in Abbotsford.
“It’s pretty devastating. It’s pretty hard to look at the future and what that’s going to be like,” she told The News on Monday morning.
Patchett, who would have turned 23 on Oct. 18, was in the backseat of a 1997 Chevy Malibu headed west on Vye Road near Sumas Way at about 2:30 a.m. when the vehicle struck a concrete barricade, then a hydro pole, and flipped onto its roof.
He was pronounced dead on the scene, and a woman who was also in the back seat was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries.
The male driver and the female passenger in the front of the car were treated for minor injuries.
Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said speed and alcohol are believed to be factors in the crash. The investigation is continuing, and the driver has not been charged at this time.
Squires, 22, said her husband had been on his way home from a friend’s 22nd birthday party at the time of the crash. The driver was a friend of Patchett’s.
She said Patchett has numerous friends and family members who are devastated by his death.
“He was just the kind of person who wanted everybody to be upbeat and happy … He wanted to live life to the fullest.”
The pair first met when they both attended the same Sunday school in Abbotsford at the age of eight. Although they attended some of the same schools over the years, they didn’t begin dating until 2007 and were married later that year.
Squires, who is studying communications and theatre at Trinity Western University in Langley, said she was drawn to Patchett’s “energetic, charismatic and outgoing” personality.
“He was the life of the party everywhere he went.”
Their son Kieran was born in 2008, and was followed the next year by their daughter Savannah. Squires said her husband, who worked at an Abbotsford furniture store, was a devoted dad who liked to build forts with his kids, take them on outdoor adventures, read to them, and make up games.
“He really, really loved his kids,” she said.
In addition to his wife and children, Patchett is survived by his parents Greg and Michelle; three sisters, Sarah, Heather and Kathryn; three grandmothers and two grandfathers.
Details for his memorial service have not yet been finalized.
