The children were killed in a drunk-driving accident.
A mom remembered her late children, who were tragically killed by a drunk driver, in a social media post with the lunchboxes they would have been carrying to school this year.
Jennifer Neville-Lake of Bampton, Ontario, posted the lunchboxes of her children – Daniel, 9, Harry, 5, and Milly, 2 – who were killed in 2015 along with their grandfather when a drunk driver hit their car.
In September, Neville-Lake posted the photo around the time the children would have been going back to school. She lined their lunchboxes up atop their graves.
“Social media is full of images of milestones. Like everyone else, I share my life, including all the milestones, holidays and celebrations we should be living and enjoying as a family,” Neville-Lake told InsideEdition.com. “This year Daniel would have started grade 8, Harry grade 4 and Milly grade 2.”
The mom said her life has been “destroyed by someone else’s selfishness,” and she hopes her post encourages others to make better decisions.
"Most people I know don't want to hurt others or cause pain,” she said.
The lunchboxes, which all have writing on them, each have a special meaning.
“Milly's is the only one with her full name on it,” Neville-Lake said.
Although she hadn’t started school yet, her siblings designed the bag because they knew she would start school soon and wanted her to “practice.”
“The boys’ bags in the photo are their lunchboxes from the year before as they were still in good shape. Daniel's is the camo one with his favorite number of 10,000 and Harry chose the name of his guinea pig for his, Fixer.”
Fixer has since died and been cremated, she said. The mom said that her post emphasizes that people’s choices have consequences.
“My right to parent my three living children was taken by a man who choose to drive drunk. I will never, ever get to watch, participate in and with, enjoy, celebrate, cry with, learn with, grow with, be with any of my children again because of another adult's decision to drive drunk,” Neville-Lake said. “This is the consequence I am forced to live with and, frankly, hate.”
Neville-Lake has also founded an organization to honor her children and father, called “Many Hands, Doing Good,” which funds art and music therapy for children suffering trauma.
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