Local man remembers his ‘brilliant, courageous’ soul mate – killed in PEI crash

Prince Edward Island RCMP distributed this photo of the aftermath of the collision that occurred on Saturday, July 14 - that left Elizabeth Sovis dead. Supplied.

An Edmonton man is in mourning, after his wife and soul mate was struck and killed while the couple explored the Maritimes on their bicycles over the weekend.

“We will never forget her and she will always be with us in our hearts,” Edmund Aunger said of his wife, Elizabeth Sovis – who was struck and killed Saturday, while cycling in Prince Edward Island.

On Saturday, Aunger said the couple had been riding their bikes near Hunter River on Prince Edward Island; Sovis was riding behind her husband at the time - when Aunger said he heard a loud bang.

He turned to see his wife had been hit by a car, and was suffering from serious injuries.

“She must have landed head first onto the road, just below her helmet she had a deep circular wound, and blood was coming from her mouth,” Aunger said. “She had very little pulse,

“She died within a minute.”

Aunger said he rushed to his wife’s side, but could do nothing to save her life.

“There was no life in her eyes, the blood was gushing from her mouth,” Aunger said, before breaking down.

“I [kept] calling her name…I called her name over and over again. I prayed - I knew there was no hope.”

Since Saturday, RCMP have charged Clarence Moase, 49, with impaired driving causing death.

Despite the impaired driving charges, Aunger maintained the major issue is making roads safer for cyclists and pedestrians – a cause he has pledged to carry on alone.

“This is a problem of this country, not being willing to invest in safe conditions for people who want to walk and ride their bicycles,” Aunger said.

Incidentally, she rarely rode her bicycle on roads with no shoulder, because they made her nervous -the road the couple was cycling on at the time of the fatal crash had no shoulder.

Sovis was a year away from retirement, and a service has been planned for Saturday.

Meanwhile, Aunger is back in the couple’s Bonnie Doon home, and has been looking back on how it all started – decades ago, when they were both children.

“I loved her the first time I saw her,” Aunger said. “I met her, she laughed and said ‘All you did was smile at me for three years,’

“Give me a break, I was only 12!”

With files from Serena Mah