Obituary of Teira Ann Knapp

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Teira Ann Knapp (St. Albert, Alberta), born in Trail, British Columbia, who passed away suddenly on March 16, 2024, at the age of 18 in a workplace accident.

Teira is survived by her parents, Rodney Jones and Melissa Knapp, siblings Brenden Knapp, Cori-Lyn Pelletier, Levi Pelletier-Jones, Sawyer Pelletier-Jones, grandparents Opa (Gary Hochreiter), Gramma (Lori Hochreiter), Gramps (Greg Whitesell) Grams (Lori Knapp), and many Great Aunties, Great Uncles, Aunts and Uncles and so many cousins.

Having Teira as a sister was the biggest blessing to all her siblings. She was a proud sister to the core. She was her older brother’s biggest fan. She loved nothing more than updating her family on what he was up to and highlighting all he had accomplished. From a young age, Brenden was the star in her eyes, she looked up to him. Having a stepsister the same age as her was like having a live-in best friend to play and fight with all day long. As they both entered adulthood, Cori and she grew closer again and we know they would have taken over the world, or Cook County, together. Her younger brothers were her pride, joy and reason to put up her overprotective guard. She loved them unconditionally and protected them whenever she felt the need. She would have protected Levi and Sawyer until the end of time.

Teira loved spending time with her dad. They didn’t need extravagant plans, simply sitting at home while he cooked her amazing dinners, playing board games or camping in the mountains were her favorite, as it was the quality time together that they enjoyed. She loved wearing her dad’s clothes, his work clothes and well-loved garage clothes, not the nice ones. She always wanted to be close to him and that was her way of doing it. He was her Ride or Die and she was his.

From her first summer, until her last T spent a lot of her time with Opa and Gramma at the lake. The lake was her oasis and her place where she would get waited on hand and foot, from breakfast to dinner. We all knew Opa and Gramma would wait on her at home too, loving every minute of it! Some of the things she loved at the lake included: waking up to her favorite French toast breakfast, quiet Sundays with Gramma and Lake Gramma, fishing, and floating on the lake with her cousins. She loved and appreciated Gramma and Opa so much, and she would want them to know that every day with them was a gift, she will be grateful for eternity knowing they loved her as much as they did, and she will be walking beside them till the end of time.

As already mentioned, T had quite the style… She loved wearing her steel-toe work boots with everything from pyjama pants, and her dad’s coveralls, to her grad dress. The one thing T always had done up was her nails. Getting her nails done with her mom was very important to her. It was truly never about the nails, but she loved getting to have this special time with her mom.

Some of her other favorite moments were with her Grams and Gramps at their farm. She loved going for visits and talked about getting pulled behind the quad on a tube and one day fixing up her Audi with them. She adored them both and loved every moment she got to be a true farm girl, and she was excited to get to live there for the last couple months of her life.

Teira graduated from Bellerose Composite High School in 2023. She had a big future in front of her full of laughter and memories with her loving friends. Though not all her friends were connections from school, lots were located all over the world far and wide. She loved spending time on “the server” with some great humans. She spent lots of time playing D&D. T had a personality that drew people in, and she had little shits to give about what strangers thought about her. She spent her grad with the best group of kids skipping the “traditional banquet” to play games, have some drinks in a small group of kids who care just as much about her as she does them. Though her future was pulled out from beneath her, our family finds peace in knowing she was so loved by such great kids, and we know her memory will forever live on through all of you. She will be buzzing around you all as you walk through life, looking out for you, loving you.

Teira recently moved away from home to spend time with her maternal grandparents. She was also working hard to find her place in the workforce. She was traveling as part of a construction crew working as a flagger for Inline Contracting, Alberta. On March 14th, while working in Saskatchewan, Teira was run over by a coworker, while doing her job. It is her family’s wish that Inline makes safety changes to ensure that all their staff are properly trained to avoid the chance of future tragedies.

After the accident, T stayed on life support until Monday, March 18, 2024. It was at this time that she went in for surgery to donate all her major organs and help provide the gift of life to five patients awaiting healthy organs.

It was difficult to honor our beautiful queen bee in a summary. She was loved by so many, and she loved so many. We hope that every single person who has a love for her knows that she loved us all the same. She didn’t care about our flaws or failures, she loved us. If you were her friend and on a break because of a silly fight, she would want that fight to be over and would want us all to survive this loss together, honoring the good times. She would want the people involved in the accident to find out why it happened, and how to work together to never let it happen again. Most of all, she would want everyone to heal. Don’t stop talking about her, telling her entire story highlighting the good times. She loved being the center of our world, and she loved the fuss.

Teira was a hero to so many families, especially her own! We are so proud of her and we miss her immensely.

In lieu of flowers, her family encourages friends and family to consider becoming organ and tissue donors. This can be done online, for anyone 16 or older. This would be an incredible way to honor T, and help her story save more lives.
https://www.canada.ca

Another way to honor Teira could be to support this non-profit charity that is working to help families while bringing an end to workplace tragedies. Her family would like to bring noise and awareness to the fact this happens more then you think.

https://threadsoflife.ca

Teira's Celebration of Life with be scheduled in the coming weeks and will not be open to the public. Should you want to be notified of when and where this will be please reach out via email @ skalwajtys86@gmail.com