Talya Pardo is trying to hold on to the good memories of her friend Ljubica Milicevic, and the fact that her friend died on Mother’s Day doesn’t make it any easier.
“She was really a very special friend for me, like a second mother,” she told Global News.
Milicevic, 76, was struck in the upper body by a tree branch just before 1 p.m. Saturday, according to Montreal police, on Queen Mary Road at the corner of Macdonald Avenue in Côte Saint-Luc.
“She was waiting for the bus,” Pardo explained. “She had texted me not even an hour before.”
Milicevic passed away from her injuries the following day.
Her daughter Isadora Nolan was too distraught to give an on-camera interview, but wrote to Global News saying that her mother “was a few weeks of completing her last novel. She published two novellas and a children’s book. This was her first novel, but her passion was for poetry.”
Pardo worked with Milicevic at the Solomon Schecter Academy library.
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“She was a writer, she was a painter, she was always busy with something creative,” she recalled.
While friends and family mourn, the incident has sparked questions about tree maintenance in the city and responsibility, especially that this comes just two weeks after a teen was struck and hospitalized by a falling tree during a windstorm in Montreal.
Legal experts like lawyer Jonathan Franklin point out that generally speaking, property owners are responsible for falling trees and branches.
“There’s a presumption of responsibility for the owner of the tree,” he explained.
Franklin added that the state of the tree, dead branches, etc., could add to the evidence of responsibility and that one possible way to get out of that is to show that the tree was properly maintained.
“The lesson to be learned by tree owners, aside from [having] insurance, is to make sure that the tree is well-maintained and healthy.”
It’s not clear if the tree in the Queen Mary Road incident is on public or private property, or what the state of the branch was when it fell.
Côte Saint-Luc officials weren’t available for comment Tuesday, but mayor Mitchell Brownstein paid tribute to Milicevic during council meeting Monday night, saying the death is “a great loss to the community and we send our deepest condolences for this tragic passing.”
There are no criminal charges but Montreal police say that could change, pending the outcome of an investigation by Quebec coroner Dr. Mylène Servant.
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