Turning Tragedy into Advocacy: Maria Tarenta's Journey - Threads of Life

In our latest episode Perley Brewer sat down with Maria Tarenta from Belfast, PEI, to hear her powerful story of loss, healing, and advocacy. At just 13 years old, Maria’s life changed forever when her father tragically died in a workplace accident. She shared what those first days were like, the challenges her family faced, and how grief reshaped their lives. Maria also spoke about the incredible support provided by Threads of Life, an organization dedicated to helping families affected by workplace tragedies.
Today, Maria is a passionate advocate for safety and mental health. She reminds us that “safety is simple—but it’s essential. If you see something, say something.” Her message is clear: every small precaution matters because lives depend on it.
Maria now speaks at conferences and events, inspiring others to prioritize safety and support those impacted by workplace incidents. Her journey is a testament to resilience and the power of community.
If you haven’t listened yet, this episode is a must for anyone committed to creating safer workplaces and supporting families through difficult times.
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Transcript

 Perley Brewer   0:17
 
 Welcome to today's podcast. My name is Perley Brewer and I will be your host. Today's podcast guest is Maria Torrenta from Belfast, PEI welcome, Maria.
Maria Tarenta   0:33
 Hi. Thank you, Perley.
Perley Brewer   0:35
 So I guess my first question, where is exactly is Belfast, PEI?
Maria Tarenta   0:40
 Belfast is eastern PEI, so if you're looking at Charlottetown, you're about 20 minutes east of Charlottetown.
Perley Brewer   0:46
 OK, so Maria prior to February the 8th, 2012, what was life like for you?
Maria Tarenta   0:55
 Life is really fun. We spent a lot of time outside in the summertime. Dad used to love taking us to the beach. We played a lot of soccer. Yeah. Spent a lot of time outside at the beach on the shore, swimming, doing a lot of physical activities.
 Winter time we were always out sledding or skating, just doing a lot of just fun activities.
Perley Brewer   1:20
 So on that day, you step off the school bus and your life changed forever. As a 13 year old. Tell us what you can remember about that day and about the days thereafter.
Maria Tarenta   1:31
 Yeah. So yeah, the the the image that sticks out most to me is definitely I'm getting off the bus that day. My mom's car wasn't there, but there was a cop car there. So we thought that was a little bit strange. So we.
 Got off the bus and we get inside the house and there's a police officer there to greet us and she tells us to come sit down on the couch and my mom's there too. And she's clearly upset. And she says, girls, we have to talk to you. It's about your dad.
 There was an accident and he died. He was killed. And then I just remembered. Just kind of everything going white after that. It just almost like a moment of, like, you know, everything just kind of turns off.
 And then I clicked back in and my sister's crying and my mom's crying and I don't really know where to place myself, so I remember running up the stairs and just isolating myself in my bedroom. And it was just.
 Yeah, a very.
 Whirlwind of a time. Yeah, a lot of phone calls to friends and just letting people know what was going on. A lot of stuff that a 13 year old is like, you know, doesn't really have the emotional.
 Bread with to really deal with at that time.
 Yeah, just a lot of a lot of talking. But you're not really saying much and.
 Yeah, it's kind of a blur if I'm being honest, but just I remember a lot of. Yeah, a lot of sadness, a lot of.
 Sorry for your loss and a lot of food and just, you know, the typical stuff, but just yeah.
Perley Brewer   3:25
 So what exactly happened to your father?
Maria Tarenta   3:28
 So from what we were told, he was carrying a pallet and he was going to throw it or he was going to toss it onto a loading barrier or whatever and he slipped.
 And he fell. And there was a vehicle that didn't see him. And they backed over him and it killed him instantly.
Perley Brewer   3:57
 So you had a sister, Juanita. How old was she when your father passed?
Maria Tarenta   4:02
 Yeah. My sister Jacinta, she was she would have been nine years old. She would have been turning 10. That may.
Perley Brewer   4:12
 For her, I assume it was equally difficult to understand.
Maria Tarenta   4:18
 Oh my gosh, I I couldn't imagine being that age like I know, let alone being 12. But just like, you know, being a naive little 9 year old like, you know, your world's just begun and it's just ripped from you. I couldn't imagine.
Perley Brewer   4:32
 Yeah.
Maria Tarenta   4:33
 What she went through.
Perley Brewer   4:35
 Your mother, Corrine, and your father, David, who, by the way, was 46 when he passed prior to that day, what had life been like for you and and your family?
Maria Tarenta   4:48
 It was really, really calm and really loving, like my parents separated whenever I was about seven years old. But there was no bad blood. There was no ill will or anything.
 My father would be at the house every single day, making sure that, you know, there was wood in the wood box. You know, we had all the groceries we needed. If we needed to go anywhere for sports practices or whatever, he would take us there.
 Just any excuse to be with us. We he was there like every day and we were just we were a unit. Even though they weren't together. We everybody got along and it was just a very it was a good it was it was a good time.
 From what I remember.
Perley Brewer   5:35
 So from your perspective, what what was the hardest part for your mother?
Maria Tarenta   5:40
 For my mother.
 Gosh, I would say, you know, you can only help your kids so much. You can only offer them, you know, so much like warmth. And like, you know, hugging and, you know, reassurance that everything's going to be OK. But you can only do so much.
 Yeah.
 Yeah, you can only do so much for your kids and then, you know, you have to watch them suffer and just you don't really have the tools 'cause, you know, it was a tragedy. We didn't see it coming, so we weren't really given. She wasn't really given the tools, you know, to deal with it herself, let alone.
 Helping her kids deal with it so I feel like that was probably the hardest part.
Perley Brewer   6:27
 So why we feature people like yourself on our podcast is is to try to get people that are currently in the workforce to to always remember that, you know, when an accident happens, it affects.
 Not only the the person, obviously that was injured or killed, but also the family. How did your family change afterwards?
Maria Tarenta   6:46
 Aye.
 None.
 Yeah, it in different ways. I mean, you know, it was really hard for us to talk about Dad and just how we were feeling and everything. And I feel like that kind of isolated us further from each other. So we couldn't really.
 We felt like we couldn't really talk to each other about a lot of things, and that just kind of built up. So sometimes it would feel like you were a stranger in your own house and just you didn't really have that person there to talk to because you didn't want to upset them.
 As you knew that they were hurting too.
 And yeah, we felt like we couldn't really talk to each other about stuff. There was, there was a lot of, like, misplaced anger and a lot of misplaced feelings that were put on to each other. And that was really hard and just learning to grow and adapt.
 From a situation that really we'd never known to happen to anybody before, just trying to pick, navigate it on our own.
 Was also a big challenge as well.
Perley Brewer   8:00
 Later on the threads of life and I want to talk about them more in a minute, provided you with and and your family with some help and comfort. Was there anyone there for you at the time otherwise?
Maria Tarenta   8:12
 I mean, yeah, like, they're like, I had friends that I could talk to like, I mean, that I felt comfortable talking to, and we did get signed up for counseling. My sister and I. So.
 That was nice to have somebody to kind of end to, but there was not really anybody there that really knew what we were going through. So sometimes it just felt like you were talking to a wall and like, you know, it's like, yeah, you can only tell me you're sorry so many times or you can only offer so much stuff, but just, you know.
 You know, I'm feeling crappy right now. Just tell me you know that it's OK to feel crappy. Like there. There wasn't really a whole lot of that around.
Perley Brewer   8:57
 So you often say when you speak like your father is still there. Tell us about some of the reminders that that you pick up on and some of the good times that you can remember.
Maria Tarenta   9:09
 Yeah, totally. Well, one of the big things for me is that I find a lot of signs in nature. I find I really look for little. I find that I don't look, I find that butterflies often come to me when I find that they're a sign of my dad.
 I like to think anyway and what else? Yeah, we I just. I like to think of the times that we would spend just the simple times, like in his 

 just listening to music and singing along or.
 You know, just being funny out in the yard, playing soccer with the dog and just yeah. And like him teaching me to skate even though he didn't know himself. Like, just just little things.

 Perley Brewer   10:02
 So people that have lost loved ones often say to me that they find special dates, birthdays, graduations, Christmas and so on. Probably the hardest have. How do you feel about that?
Maria Tarenta   10:15
 Yeah, it's. I don't know, like it's some some holidays are hard, like Christmas can be hard because you know he's not there. But then I also like to remind myself of the good memories that I do have with him there. So it's almost like a like a.
 Like you win some, you lose some. Like it's you feel like the loss that he's not there. And all the memories that we had. But it's like if you turn it around and be like this. This was like a great time like like we used to have like we had so much fun and like.
 And we used to like.
 Yeah. And we used, yeah, around the holidays. We used to, like, go playing in the snow and stuff and you just kind of, like, remind yourself that, like, you know, you had those good times. And yes, they're gone. But like, wasn't it so awesome to even have it at all?
Perley Brewer   11:08
 So you say when you speak that for many years, you did feel isolated. As you mentioned earlier. How has the threat of life helped you and your family?
Maria Tarenta   11:18
 Oh, they've been a tremendous help with my family. I feel like we wouldn't be in the place that we are without threads of life. They've really they've really allowed me to not be afraid to open up about my grief.
 And to you know, it's OK to talk about my dad, even though it might make, you know, somebody uncomfortable. That's, you know, that's my dad. That's my person. And you know, I want to keep his memory alive. There's no shame in crying. And there's no shame in being sad that your person's gone.
 They also told like they also teach that, like, you're never alone when you're at threads of life or when you're part of that program because, you know, we all kind of have a similar walk of life. And just knowing that, you know, there's somebody there who's kind of had that similar experience. It makes me feel less alone.
 Yeah.
Perley Brewer   12:12
 So if you or any of your family members attended the family forums.
Maria Tarenta   12:17
 Yep, we've been the first one we attended. I was 14, so that would have been the following year. 20. Yeah, 2013 was our first year there. And I've been. I've had a couple under my belt. I want to say like maybe six or seven.
 Roughly, I haven't gone to every single one consecutively, but I try to go every year.
Perley Brewer   12:40
 What about your mom and sister?
Maria Tarenta   12:43
 They're roughly the same. It's if our schedules line up, I've probably gone more than they have just because of scheduling conflicts or illness or whatever. But yeah, we go together every year.
Perley Brewer   12:54
 OK, if you could share a message today with folks listening to our podcast from a point of view of safety?
 What would you say to them?
Maria Tarenta   13:06
 That, you know, safety, it's it's so simple like you think it's not, but it really is. It's just the smallest thing. Like, you could literally just miss a step. It's just you're in your day-to-day life doing the same monotonous task. There is always room for something to happen. So you always.
 You have to be on the go, always on the lookout and you have to look out for yourself and you have to look out for others.
 And if you see something, say something.
Perley Brewer   13:37
 So are you doing many talks these days?
Maria Tarenta   13:40
 Yes, actually I last month I spoke on behalf of Worksafe New Brunswick for their health and Safety conference. I did a speech telling my story and talking about how threads of life has impacted my my life and my family's life. I did that last month and then I did my first virtual presentation back in April.
 Role for a group of folks and that's it so far. But I mean, I'm eager. I'm wherever they want me, I'll go.
Perley Brewer   14:13
 So just on on that, then I'd like to point out to our listeners today that if you do have a request, you can reach out to Maria or reach out to central life certainly for you to share your messages, it has to be difficult.
 But we certainly do appreciate you sharing your message. One of the last questions, I guess, not to keep you too long here today. How are you, your sister and your mother doing these days?
Maria Tarenta   14:40
 We're doing great. We're so much closer than we were thirteen years ago. We laugh together, we cry together. We talk about Dad all the time. We make jokes.
 We are just we wouldn't be where we are today without threads of life. That's they've helped us so much. They've helped us heal. We've still got a ways to go. But I mean, we're in a much better place.
Perley Brewer   15:11
 So what are you doing outside of yours? Talks with threads of life. What are you doing elsewhere in your life right now?
Maria Tarenta   15:20
 So I graduated from university with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 2022, and I'm currently managing a clothing boutique in downtown Charlottetown.
Perley Brewer   15:32
 Oh, very good. Well, look, Maria, I'd like to thank you very much for sharing your story today. I know I must be hard in a lot of ways. We certainly appreciate you taking that time. I also want to mention, as I do on all of that podcast.
 If you have been impacted by a workplace tragedy or a fatality injury, reach out to the threats of life organization. It's as simple as Googling. Threats of life. Continue to interview folks like you, Maria, that to continue to say that it's it's been a lifesaver for them.
 Well, thank you very much for our listeners. Stay safe, have a good week. And as Maria said, remember always keep your eyes open and if you see something that doesn't feel right, doesn't look late, say something, get it corrected.
 Thank you. Talk to you next week.

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