This message/post was written by Samantha Frazer, the daughter of the man killed at MMFX Steel of Canada plant on January 20, 2009. I wrote about this particular accident in 2012, and can be read by pulling up blog post #227.
It was just another in a long line of workplace fatalities but this message is the first of its kind on our website. It is a heart-breaking account of the destructive aftermath a senseless workplace death has on a family.
Thank you, Samantha, for allowing us into your world and I hope your message will reach every worker, supervisor and employer and help prevent even one more death or accident. Even one death is too much as you will read.
Samantha Frazer’s company, Frazer Safety Service is out of the Niagara Region. She is also in a working partnership with Wellington Medical Centre for the WSIB Health and Safety Excellence Program.
Thank you.
Daniel L. Beal
CHSEP – Advanced
HRS Group Inc.
Life Afterwards: by Samantha Frazer
When asked to reflect on my life post my dad’s death at work, I would define it as complicated. I feel like my role is undefined, but I must keep going. I must make sure this does not happen to everyone. Except, when ever I read about a tragedy in a workplace, I am instantly thrown back into feeling the feeling I felt that day. An example is most recently, a worker passed away locally to me, and his sister was being interviewed on the local news. I felt an instant draw to the fact, I was her almost 14 years to the date, instead of the tv, it was the local news paper. I have no idea what I spoke about. Except that my dad loved the cottage and his grandkids. She spoke of his new fiancé and a go fund me for a food truck. I bet she will not remember what she said.
My memory is incredibly bad. Not the short term, but the long term that is blocked out. They said it was the trauma. That my brain went through a lot. I do not remember but, I am sure. I am best when I focus on a list of tasks and keep to that.
I have serious abandonment issues. I do not like when I am left alone or when people leave. I literally think something will happen. Again, lots of therapy and anti anxiety pills and sleep pills, help some but the reality is that when someone goes and there is no notice and no goodbye, it affects you.
I am incredibly triggered to taking things on when I should not, because then I can be the result for the good or bad. I do not want to disappoint or fail.
So, I opened a safety consulting firm. My reaction is always quick. I did not like some of the practices my former employer was doing. After many months of frustration, I spoke to another consultant who suggested I start my own practice. So as of March 2022, I opened ‘Frazer Safety Service’, in honour of my dad.
I have two brothers. Both with very different experiences to the death of my father. My middle brother, Scott, works for CNR. He has since my dad passed away, similar career to my father. He does not speak of my father to his girls. It is like he never existed. That is Scott’s way of coping. My baby brother, has never recovered from the death. He has never held down a job, and he has suffered a life of addiction. We have had to disassociate with him, because of his anger. I miss my little brother, but it is safer this way.
Life continues each day. Another anniversary has passed. I often wonder why I signed up for such irony in terms of working a career that may have saved my father. Sometimes it is VERY hard emotionally, but I have a huge support system of people behind me cheering me on.