You could see it in his face.
Dennis Brianski struggled between heart-wrenching grief and heart-warming pride as he spoke about his late father.
“Everything he ever did was for his family,” said Brianski. “He was just the greatest man I ever knew.”
50-year-old Gennadi Brianski died Friday morning in a tragic collision on Highway 417 near Carling Avenue in Ottawa. A dual wheel assembly detached from a westbound tractor trailer, crossed the highway and struck Brianski’s eastbound delivery van. According to his son, Brianski had worked as a courier for several years and had recently started his own business.
Dennis Brianski was gracious enough to spend a few minutes remembering his father as the family gathered at their Carleton Place home.
“He was just the most gentle soul you've ever met in your life. He was the kind of man who never asked for a hand at anything but would give the shirt of (his) back if you needed it. He was just the best man I've ever known. And if I could ever be like half the man that he was then I'd know I've accomplished something," he said.
Brianski says his father emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1992, along with “the only woman he ever loved.” They started a family in Carleton Place which grew to include a son, a daughter, and two grandchildren.
Dennis Brianski remembers a father who would often take him fishing, or join him in a game of pond hockey.
He says the family is still trying to process the tragic circumstances surrounding his death.
"It's kind of weird. I'm waiting for him to pull into the driveway and I'm waiting to say hi to him. But I know it's not going to happen so it's kind of hard. But it's just one day at a time I guess."
