Instead of wrapping last-minute gifts, family and friends of Matthew Rozycki spent the day before Christmas Eve saying their goodbyes.
The 21-year-old Barrie man was killed when the vehicle he was driving struck a hydro pole shortly after midnight Tuesday, Dec. 20 on Mapleview Drive West near Veterans Drive in the city’s south end.
A female passenger, whose name has not officially been released by police, was reported to be in serious, life-threatening condition in a Toronto-area trauma centre following the crash.
She has been identified by Karen Rozycki as her son’s girlfriend of more than three years. She has been put into a medically induced coma at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
“They’re doing everything they possibly can to help her. They’re amazing down there,” said Karen.
A service for Matthew was held Dec. 23 at Steckley-Gooderham Funeral Home in Barrie, which Karen told BarrieToday was attended by more than 140 people in person, and another 100 online.
“This is a very difficult time for our family because this is our second son (we have lost),” she said, noting one of Matthew’s brothers died in a drowning accident.
Karen described Matthew as a happy and kind person who always lent a helping hand to others. Despite struggling with anxiety and depression as a result of having autism, he never gave up and he fought hard through adversity, she said with pride.
“I was attached to him at the hip because Matthew was born very sick and they said he wouldn’t make it. We moved to Barrie so I didn’t have to work, and I stayed (home) … He had a whole support system to help him get through all of the challenges,” she said.
“He fought to become who he is today. That’s why it’s really sad because he’s had a lot of issues, and he hasn’t done some of the greatest things, but all he ever wanted in life was to be accepted by people, but he never gave up. Any challenge that came his way, he’d just fight it, and he was an inspiration to so many people.”
Matthew, she said, simply “loved life” and spent much of his time outdoors and enjoyed cruising around on the boat with his father on Georgian Bay near Honey Harbour.
“We would go there all summer long. We would do lots of trips there and have adventures,” she said, adding Matthew spent last summer as a manager at a bakery in Port Carling. “We would go to Niagara Falls and we had just done a trip over the border … and we were going to go away on holidays for Christmas.”
Her son, she added, would want the world to know it’s important to never give up on one’s dreams.
Matthew, she said, had a dream of one day opening a business — a goal he had already begun to pursue as he prepared to begin his second semester in Georgian College’s marine engine mechanic program in January.
“His uncle owned a bunch of marinas up in Muskoka … and his dad is a marine mechanic at Bombardier, and their dream was to open their own business together. That was his dream, and I know Matthew would have done that,” she said.
“He had so much to give, and he was that light at the end of the tunnel that just never gave up.”
Barrie police officials noted the collision remains under investigation.
