Daughter killed in sushi restaurant 'absolutely loved life': mother
Maija-Liisa Corbett, 19, wanted to become a history teacher
Last Updated: Monday, September 1, 2008 | 7:15 PM PT
CBC News
Maritta Kosonan says her 19-year-old daughter is deeply missed by many people who have been touched by her love for life. (CBC) A 19-year-old woman who died last week when a truck slammed into a crowded sushi restaurant in Maple Ridge, B.C., always made everyone around her happy and "absolutely loved life," her mother said Monday.
Maritta Kosanen said she still can't understand why her daughter, Maija-Liisa Corbett, was taken from her at such a young age.
"You couldn't have a bad time in her presence. That's why every one was so affected by her [death]," Kosanen said in a sit-down interview with CBC News Monday.
'I wouldn't have ever dreamed in a million years that I would never see her again.'— Maritta Kosanen, grieving mother
Corbett and Hyeshim Oh, a 46-year-old employee of Halu Sushi, were killed when the truck plowed through the restaurant in a Maple Ridge strip mall around 6 p.m. last Thursday. Six other people sustained non life-threatening injuries.
Brian Craig Irving, 51, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder. He remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in court in Port Coquitlam on Tuesday.
Flowers were left outside Halu Sushi in Maple Ridge, B.C., where two women were killed after a truck plowed through it on Aug. 28. (CBC) Friends mourning the death of the two women visited the restaurant Monday and left flowers in their memory.
Corbett, a student at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby and a graduate of Westview Secondary School in Maple Ridge, always wanted to become a history teacher, her mother said.
"She just adored [Westview Secondary] school and was inspired by so many teachers there," Kosanen said.
Kosanen said the last conversation she had with her daughter was before she went to the sushi restaurant with a friend.
"I said, 'Great. Have fun, sweetie'," Kosanen said. "I wouldn't have ever dreamed in a million years that I would never see her again."
Kosanen said her family, especially her other daughter, who is 14, is having a hard time putting the loss of their loved one behind them.
