Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press Friends, First Nation mourn ‘tragic’ loss
The death of a Rosenort woman Tuesday afternoon has shaken family and friends in Manitoba and Ontario, where she was well known for her work with First Nations.
Marj Heinrichs, author, journalist, communications consultant and mother of five, died in a crash east of Morris that also sent four other people to hospital with serious injuries.
She was on her way to a traditional sweat lodge ceremony in Roseau River First Nation when she died.
“She was like family and she was well-liked by a lot of people,” Roseau River Chief Terry Nelson said Thursday.
Friends said their grief is even harder to bear because of the timing of her death — so soon after her mother-in-law’s passing — as much as for the manner of her death, eerily similar to her son’s death in 1994.
“When she lost her son Tom in a car accident, it was my mom she turned to so it was tragic for her to go that way. Her husband, Jim, recently lost his mother so it’s doubly tough for him,” Nelson said.
Heinrichs was driving alone in a Chevrolet Impala, heading north on Provincial Road 200, which is controlled by a stop sign at Highway 23, when she entered the intersection. Her car was broadsided on the driver’s side by a Chevy Avalanche heading east on Highway 23.
Her crushed car ended up in a farmer’s field away from the highway. The destroyed Avalanche hit the ditch. Its four occupants — all “older adults,” police said, were taken to hospital.
The victims are from the Steinbach area.
Speed and alcohol were not factors in the collision and everyone was wearing a seat belt, RCMP said.
Heinrich ran a communications company from her home in Rosenort, printing newsletters for clients. One of her best-known projects was documenting history through the use of oral traditions in southern Manitoba First Nation communities.
Her links to First Nations drew her other jobs, including her radio reporting gig with CFAM Radio 950 in Altona.
“Marj was a person who loved life and she had a passion for First Nations people and she did a lot of work with Roseau River First Nation. That’s kind of why we hired her. We didn’t have those links into the community,” CFAM news director Dean Penner said.
A funeral planned for Saturday in Rosenort is expected to draw mourners from across southern Manitoba and northern Ontario.
My heart bleeds for your family. Marg was such a wonderful sunny person. How much pain can one family bare?