‘It feels like a nightmare’: Friends, family mourn Ottawa man killed by storm

When Steve Hamre wished to play a track on guitar however did not know the notes, he simply needed to dial up his good friend Rob Hayami for assist.

“I might name him up and say ‘Hey Rob, hearken to this track, what are the chords?'” the 50-year-old recalled. “He had an ear for music. He may play something.”

He smiled as he stated it, however for the previous few days, Hamre has discovered songs he hears on the radio convey a bitter reminder that his good good friend is gone.

Buddies of the 49-year-old Ottawa man say he was a sufferer of the lethal derecho windstorm that slammed into Ontario and Quebec on Could 21, leaving destruction in its wake and tens of hundreds with out energy.

A minimum of 10 different individuals died on account of accidents suffered that day, whereas one other particular person was killed the day after by a falling tree department.

Hayami beloved hockey, music and golf, in line with Hamre. He stated his good friend was out at Cedarhill Golf and Nation Membership together with his eight-year-old son Owen when the storm hit.

They noticed darkish clouds coming and had been headed again to the clubhouse when the roaring winds toppled a tree onto their cart.

Hamre stated he was informed Hayami was pinned. An obituary on the Tubman Funeral Properties web site says he died Wednesday on the Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus, surrounded by family members.

He leaves behind his son, his spouse Kristine McGillivray, his two brothers Geoff and Steven and his dad and mom Hiroshi and Jane.

“It looks like a nightmare, it does not really feel actual,” stated Hamre. “However sadly, we’re not going to see Rob once more.”

Now not there to steer songs

Jack Pelletier shared an emotional message of mourning on Fb Thursday, describing himself as a “greatest good friend” to Hayami, earlier than shortly including he is “removed from being his solely ‘greatest’ good friend.”

Humility, kindness and humour had been just some of the phrases he used to explain him, including he and others had spent the previous three days in a “fixed flood of recollections and tears.”

One group of associates had gone right down to the hospital just a few days earlier than Hayami’s demise, Pelletier stated, simply to be close to him.

“A couple of of us sat within the car parking zone with our guitars,” his submit learn. “I may really feel Rob was there a bit, however he wasn’t there bodily to steer the songs anymore.”

Hamre is lacking the music too.

“He was an superior good friend,” he stated of Hayami. “The most effective guys you would ever know.”

He grew up with Hayami in Orléans and stated his cellphone has been flooded with individuals sharing tales and pictures — bringing again moments he did not even bear in mind.

In every one, they’re standing aspect by aspect.

“He is the kind of man that you simply walked within the room and he is all the time smiling, open arms to all people,” stated Hamre. 

“He is left lots of people behind.”

Hamre stated a big group of associates will all the time be there for Hayami’s household, honouring the numerous relationships he constructed by guaranteeing these he beloved most are cared for.

Owen is already carrying on a few of his father’s legacy by enjoying the piano, he added.

“I hope he will get the ear the Rob had for music.”