North Bay prof with same name as crash victim flooded with condolence messages
Deborah Flynn, 60, has been fielding condolence calls from loved ones since Friday. That's when Ontario Provincial Police said another Deborah Flynn, 54, was the victim of a fatal crash on Highway 17 west of Markstay-Warren. (Photo from Facebook)
A Nipissing University professor wants to clear up the confusion after a woman with the same name from the same northern Ontario city was killed in a car crash last week.
Deborah Flynn, 60, has been fielding condolence calls from loved ones since Friday. That's when Ontario Provincial Police said another Deborah Flynn, 54, was the victim of a fatal crash on Highway 17 west of Markstay-Warren.
"This has been such a terrible day with this confusion," said Flynn, an associate professor of psychology at Nipissing for 32 years.
"I am sorry for the loss of the other Deborah Flynn … I have spent most of the day answering texts and messages to try to let my close friends know I am alive. What a day!"
She was so flooded with messages, it prompted her to post on Facebook on Friday afternoon to let her friends and family know she was alive and well.
"Already today, I have had three more close friends reaching out after learning it was not me but grieving for three days," Flynn said Monday.
"Given my profession, I have touched the lives of thousands of students. I need to let people know of this mistake. Quite honestly, I have been crying on and off with people for three days."
She said she moved from North Bay to Crystal Beach near Niagara Falls in May and that she had met the crash victim a couple of years ago after their mail kept getting mixed up as they had both lived on Queen Street at the time.
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