Family mourns 88-year-old killed in hit-and-run and hopes driver will come forward

In the week since Joan Shelton died, messages from people who knew her have poured in a small comfort for a family left reeling after tragedy.

One of those messages was from a woman who had Shelton as a mentor during her first job in adult psychiatry, and remembered the 88-year-old former nurse as motherly and kind, wise and patient someone who took her under her wing and helped so many.

Theanecdote brought back memories for Kirstin Bilous, who played with Shelton's stethoscope as a kid, listening to her heartbeat with the great-aunt who was always more like another grandma to her and her cousins.

"It's just really nice to hear those things from other people and know how many people she impacted," Bilous, 27, said on Sunday.

"That's something that I'll always hold dear."

Shelton, an avid painter and radiant figure in her family, was run over by a five-ton moving truck not far from her apartment as she tried to cross Broadway on her way to the Millennium Library in Winnipeg on the morning of Aug. 6.

The truck did not stop, but bystanders did, staying by Shelton's side until an ambulance arrived. She was taken to Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg with injuries that included fractured ribs and, they discovered in hospital, kidneys that had stopped working, Bilous said.

Shelton died on Aug. 9.

Bilous said she was at a cabin celebrating a friend's wedding when she got the news last week that her AuntyJoan or "AJ," as she called her was in the hospital.

She picked up her sister and went to visit her, and though Shelton didn't speak much, Bilouscould tell she was happy they were there.

That was two days after the hit-and-run, which happened on Bilous's birthday an occasion Shelton failed to mark for the first time.

"It was really kind of heartbreaking to know that that was why she didn't call," Bilous said.

Shelton used a cane to walk, but she was still as independent as ever when she was killed.

Her family is mourning the time they lost with her, and hoping the driver of the truck will go to police.

"I just really wish that person would have thought twice before making that decision and then not stopping to see if she was OK. And I wish that they would come forward and own up to it," she said, her voice trembling.

"Their impatience cost my aunt a lot of good time that she had left."

Police said last week that investigators are asking for help from the public to identify the truck and its driver. Anyone with information is asked to call 204-986-7085.