From Grande Prairie to Sault Ste. Marie, friends are gathering to remember a friend, uncle, brother, and father. Those who knew Kenneth Miskimins are coming together to celebrate his life and the positive impact he left on those he came across.
Miskimins was killed on June 17th when his SUV crashed into a semi truck on Highway 40. His elder sister Becky Sawyer says he was a class clown who loved to make others happy.
“His goal was to make sure that everybody he surrounded himself with was happy; everybody needed to be happy and if you weren’t happy he did everything in his power to make sure that changed very quickly.”
A celebration of life in Muskoseepi Park Friday night was organized by the 28-year-old’s friend Layne Dewit, to which friends and family were invited to speak, tell stories, and say their farewells. A cross was brought to be signed by those who will remember him and will be planted at the site where he passed away.
Dewit says his friend was probably the most loving, most understandable person he knew.
“He was always really outgoing and he would always make good of a bad situation and bring light to people’s eyes. He just loved everybody and never really expected anything from anybody else. He was a really good brother to me.”
Friends and family describe Miskimins as having been very goal-oriented, financially conscious, and avid about personal fitness. A man of many hats, the 28-year-old was a regular at the Shark Club and could often be found on the dance floor, at the gym, throwing a frisbee in the park, sitting down with a pen to draw, or, until recently, dominating ‘Summoner’s Rift’ in the popular online game “League of Legends.”
“One of his favourite things to be was ‘Uncle Dude’,” says Sawyer. “He was Uncle Dude to my children who are 16 and 17 and are very familiar with their Uncle Dude and his fantastic antics about everything all the time. Everything he showed them was literally their new fad. He is ‘epic’ in their books; my daughter regularly refers to him as being epic.”
Miskimins passed on June 17, 2020. He is survived by his son, Sylas; his mother, Sharon; his father, Kiven; and his siblings, Becky, Carla, Kimberly, Melissa and Barry. The celebration of his life was held on his birthday, July 10th. Memorial donations can be made in his name to Canadian Mental Health.