Erin Louise Simanskis

She tracked Blue Jays baseball scores because her Canadian mother loved Canada’s only major-league team. She embraced the Catholic faith and the Carolina Hurricanes because her husband worshiped God and the 'Canes. She screamed at just the right decibel to be heard over other parents at her son’s high school marching-band competitions. She gave up the trunk of her car for nine years to house her daughter’s horseback-riding equipment.

Erin Louise McKelvie was born September 9, 1958 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Her affinity for cats, dogs and critters blossomed during summers at her grandmother’s farm. Inheriting her mother’s green thumb, she would labor in the garden every summer during her adult life.

Erin studied journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. After graduating in 1986, she worked as a reporter at radio stations across the province before landing at CJOH in Ottawa. Canadians would recognize her for decades after she left their TV screens.

For ten years Erin dated Ed Simanskis, a self-proclaimed “software nerd.” They were married on June 1, 1991.

In 1997, Erin gave birth to twins, Eric and Emily. She left her professional career to take what she called her dream job — full-time mother. “Raising kids is one of the greatest joys of my life,” she told her son a month before her death.

Erin and Ed packed the kids into their forest green Pontiac minivan when the twins were 10 months old and moved to Cary, North Carolina, for Ed’s job at Nortel. They moved to Austin, Texas, in 2000, stayed for four years, then returned to the other side of Cary.

Canadian at birth and at heart, Erin hated the cold. So she loved North Carolina's climate as well as its southern hospitality. She would stop neighbors to ask about their children and swap parenting advice. She was wonderful in conversation, listening as much as she spoke. She laughed most at her children’s jokes and husband’s quips, and she giggled after two glasses of wine. She sent handwritten cards to friends and acquaintances alike. She always took several minutes to hang up the phone, stuck in what she called “the McKelvie Goodbye.”

Erin was clumsy. Her husband called her “Moosey” when they were dating. She set her car's clock seven minutes fast because she was perpetually late. It drove Ed crazy.

As her twins grew up, Erin shuttled them to roller hockey practices, band performances, horseback-riding lessons and sleepovers. When the family headed north to Canada every summer to visit their extended families, Ed drove and Erin navigated from the passenger seat.

Erin rescued every spider trapped in her house. “They’re good bugs!” she’d remind her family as she tried to trap the spider in a glass. She saved lizards from her family’s cat.

Erin drank tea before bed, called her parents every Monday night, and diligently took photos of her children as they grew up.

In 2017, with the twins away at college, she returned to journalism as a researcher for WRAL’s “5 on Your Side” investigative segment. Soon she became the station's weekend assignment editor and its unofficial “newsroom mom.” She loved the job and only bemoaned the fact that weekend work kept her from spending more time with family.

On January 21, driving home from a Friday shift, Erin was involved in a minor accident. As she stood at the side of the road exchanging information with the other driver, she was struck by a third vehicle. She died as a result of her injuries on January 26 at WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh.

Erin’s kidneys will save two lives. Her liver and lungs were donated for research. She lives on in the memories of her family and countless others. She is survived by husband, Ed, her children, Eric and Emily, her father, Melvin McKelvie, of Mississauga, Ontario, and her brother, Craig McKelvie, of London, Ontario.

Erin’s funeral will be held at St. Michael’s Church in Cary, North Carolina, Monday, Jan. 31 at 1 p.m. A celebration of her life with eulogies from Ed, Eric and Emily and the opportunity to greet her family and remember Erin’s life will follow at WRAL Gardens and Courtyard in Raleigh at 3 p.m. All are welcome to attend.

In lieu of flowers, Erin’s family asks for patience as they establish a fund to support parents who work in newsrooms. More information will be forthcoming, and those who would like to keep up with Erin’s story can visit CaringBridge.org/visit/ErinSimanskis.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.apexfuneral.net for the Simanskis family.