THUNDER BAY — A city woman grieving the sudden loss of her only child found support from three complete strangers in the moments after receiving the tragic news.

Now other community members are also stepping forward by contributing to a GoFundMe campaign to cover expenses and start a scholarship in memory of her son, Dylan Wade.

The 20-year-old died early last week in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 11 east of Fort Frances.

Terri Geurts, who watched her son leave on his road trip that morning, was out shopping when she got a phone call that dealt her the hardest blow any parent can receive.

“I literally fell to the ground in the middle of the parking lot … screaming in shock,” she said.

Bystanders weren’t sure at first why she was in distress, but then a man approached and helped her up.

Others stepped forward to support and comfort Geurts in any way they could until her partner and a family member arrived on the scene.

“They were just picking on me and then I realized they weren’t leaving me and I was saying, ‘Oh my God, promise you won’t leave me,’ and they were asking if there was anyone to call. ”

She said a woman reassured her ” ‘Don’t worry, no one is leaving you,’ and then it was so, so comforting.” To know that I wasn’t alone, that they weren’t going to go and I wasn’t going to be upset outside Dollarama on Arthur Street.”

As Geurts began to shake with shock, one of the other strangers put his coat around her.

“They were with me, the three people, and they protected me from people coming in and out of the store. They didn’t allow other people to come up to me and say, ‘What’s wrong with her’ or something like that.”

The trio stayed by her side for about half an hour.

She now knows the names of two of the Good Samaritans and is anxious to get in touch with the third person, a man, so she can express her gratitude to them all.

That person can reach the family via email: [email protected].

The GoFundMe campaign, started by a close friend, has brought in about $12,000 of its $15,000 goal as of Wednesday afternoon.

The family asked those unable to contribute to “put down some tobacco and say a prayer for Dylan” and “hug your loved ones tight, because tomorrow is never guaranteed.”

Geurts said she has also received hundreds of private messages from people expressing their condolences and describing how Dylan impacted the lives of so many others.

He was active in sports, where he made many friends, especially in hockey and baseball, and attended St. Patrick and Confederation College, enrolling there in Electrical Engineering for two years.

The young man had just started a new job in May of this year.

“Other parents say ‘I met your son. He was so kind.” I had a lady from Cincinnati email me saying her son was bullied at school and ended up meeting Dylan online, and they’ve been friends for five or six years,” Geurts said.

She said the woman told her Dylan had changed her own son’s life and wanted to know what she could do now to offer support.

The funeral service is scheduled at Harborview Funeral Home on Cumberland St. N. at 13.00 on November 23.