One week ago, Kristen M. Duhamel ’10 told her mother, Loren, that her car was not working properly. The two traded cars and planned to meet up the following Saturday after the vehicle was fixed. But plans were changed last minute, and the car exchange occurred Friday afternoon instead.
“Kristen told me, ‘Mom, you don’t have to drive all the way to Fairfield,'” said Loren Duhamel, who lives in Charlestown, R.I. “So, we met at the Clinton Outlets and we switched cars there.”
Although Loren Duhamel had no knowledge of what would later occur, she said she had a “feeling” and needed to see her daughter before Saturday.
“There was something in me. ‘How about we go today?'” Loren Duhamel asked her daughter on Friday, Sept. 21.
Hours later, Kristen Duhamel was pronounced dead at Stamford Hospital. She had sustained severe injuries from a car accident on the Merritt Parkway near Greenwich, Conn., state police said.
Duhamel, 19, who was sitting in the backseat of classmate Matthew P. Holmes’s Ford Bronco, was ejected onto the roadway after Holmes lost control of his vehicle while navigating a curve. The vehicle first struck the wood beam guardrail on the left side of the two-lane highway, rolled over, and then struck the right side, according to the accident summary.
Duhamel and Holmes were taken in an ambulance to Stamford Hospital and Roberto L. Nicolia, Jr. ’10, the front seat passenger, was transported to Greenwich Hospital. All three passengers were wearing seatbelts, and both males suffered non-fatal injuries, according to police.
The case is still under police investigation.
A resident of Jogues Hall, Duhamel was a nursing major studying to become a nurse practitioner.
“She was very interested in the medical field since she was four years old,” said Loren Duhamel.
In her hometown, Duhamel was a volunteer for Charlestown Ambulance ‘ Rescue Service, a position her friends and family said she took very seriously.
“That was her life, one of the loves of her life,” said her father Scott Duhamel. “She was there every Sunday evening. Even if she felt tired, she had to be there.”
One of her closest friends from home, Sheenagh Denniston, agreed.
“She liked to help people. It was just Kristen’s way of life. She wanted to make a difference in people’s lives,” said Denniston, who was one of Duhamel’s former classmates at The Prout School in Wakefield, R.I.
Duhamel was a member of the Emergency Response Team at Fairfield, which provides medical education and ride-along experience. She was also involved in Campus Ministry, recently training to become a Eucharistic Minister and attending spiritual retreats.
A remembrance mass was held at the University’s Egan Chapel on Sept. 22. More than 400 members of the University community turned out to pray for Duhamel and her family.
“Our community is deeply shaken to lose a valued member of the undergraduate student body,” said University President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx, S.J., in a press release. “On behalf of the University, I extend my sincerest condolences to Kristen’s parents.”
Duhamel’s wake will be held at Stapleton Barry Holdredge Funeral Services in Cranston, R.I., on Wednesday, Sept. 26 from 6-8 p.m. The funeral mass will be held on Thursday, Sept. 27 at St. Charles Borromeo in Providence, R.I.
Loren Duhamel said her daughter loved Fairfield and the friends she made. Though Duhamel once considered transferring schools, she later told her mom that she felt at home.
“By the end of her first year [Kristen] said, ‘I’m going to stay there. That is my place.’ And she was happy. It was a happy experience for her.”
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