Alicia Silliker is a daughter, a friend, a humanitarian and a scholar.
She’s also a twin.
But during her first week at St. Thomas University, Alicia remembers being asked if she had any brothers or sisters.
“It’s sort of a weird question to answer,” she said. “I don’t want to say no, because I do, but I guess I don’t. And still a lot of people don’t know.”
***
Her ice cream of choice is Brownies on the Moon. She loves Ellen DeGeneres. Her favourite colour is blue.
But there’s a lot more to Alicia Silliker than what’s on the surface.
With big brown eyes and an infectious smile, Alicia is someone everyone wants to be around. Her sister was like that too.
On Nov. 4, 2010, Alicia’s twin sister, Brianna, was pulling out of her driveway when her car collided with a truck. She was killed instantly.
The two were in their final year at Kensington Intermediate Senior High (KISH) on Prince Edward Island. Although identical, their personalities were far from it. From what subjects they liked in school, to sports and interests, Alicia and Brianna made their mark on the community in completely different ways.
But one thing was for sure – both girls were extremely involved.
Brianna attended the Shad Valley camp, an enrichment program for high school students, at Dalhousie University the summer before she passed away. The camp is for young academic leaders to practise business, math, science and engineering.
This is while Alicia had become KISH’s co-student council president and the town’s Relay for Life co-chairperson. Although they pursued different projects, both of them had unique leadership qualities.
Alicia reflected on the last couple of months she had with her sister during her grad year.
“And when she was gone it was just really weird, because like, when you spend four months in the same classes and then go to not having her there, it wasn’t the same.”
***
Alicia had band practice after school that day. She played saxophone in the school band, and Brianna was going to pick her up when it was finished and drive her to her hair appointment.
Alicia texted Brianna at about 3:30 p.m. to tell her she was done. But when Brianna didn’t show, Alicia walked down to her appointment. As she was walking, she saw an ambulance go by.
About half-an-hour later, a police car pulled up to the hair dresser’s. Her parents got out and told Alicia what had happened.
“It was just shock. It felt like, like I don’t know, it just felt like everything and nothing. I didn’t really cry, I didn’t really do anything. But I can remember the moment perfectly. I just sort of, stopped.”
The days after were a blur.
“It was kind of nice because everyone was over and we were constantly doing things to keep our minds off it all,” Alicia said.
But she knew it would be hard to see Brianna again.
“It was weird because she didn’t look the same. I guess no one ever looks the same,” she said.
Thousands of people turned up for Brianna’s wake and funeral. Green and white ribbons – the school’s colours – were worn and Brianna’s Facebook wall was filled with hundreds of messages.
The town of Kensington froze.
The next few months were difficult: celebrating Christmas, the new year and their birthday without her twin. There was a point when Alicia decided she needed to start smiling again.
“Everyone loses someone in their life, it just happened to me really young. If I looked at myself from like last November to this November, I am totally different, there’s huge growth,” she said.
“I think she just wanted to live life with a smile, so I just decided I was going to try to do that.”
***
William Blake, an English poet, wrote about the struggles of personal tragedy and the stages one goes through afterwards.
Alicia said she is studying Blake in her intro to literature course and relates to the text.
“When Brianna died, I found myself in this weird, foreign area and now I am just getting back,” she said.
“Getting back” was hard, but family and friends made all the difference, Alicia said.
“I look up to my parents more than ever. And I have a great role model.”
Alicia’s role model is a teacher she had in high school. The teacher not only taught Alicia leadership and English, but was her advisor in several activities and groups.
“Mrs. Gallant went through a similar thing in high school, her best friend passed away in a car accident and so she helped me a lot after Brianna died. Ever since then, we just connected.
“She’s always just so positive and no matter what she’s just like, ‘Let’s go,’” Alicia said. “That’s the kind of teacher I want to be.”
Now a first-year at STU, Alicia is interested in human rights and political science and would like to go on to get a bachelor of education.
A couple months before she arrived in Fredericton, Alicia received a phone message from a “British man from Ontario.”
“There was a message on our phone and he was like ‘Oh, I’d like to talk to Alicia,’” she said. “I called him and he said, ‘Oh, you got the award, just thought I’d let you know.’”
“I just started to cry.”
Alicia received the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award – a prestigious scholarship that recognizes students who have “demonstrated the highest ideals and qualities of citizenship and humanitarian service while in pursuit of excellence in academic, amateur sport, fitness, health and voluntary community service. In so doing has reflected those ideals of courage, humanitarianism, service and compassion, which Terry Fox embodied.”
Alicia is one of very few from Prince Edward Island who have ever received the award, which includes $7,000 a year for four years, provided the recipients continue their volunteer work.
“When I heard, the next day at school, it was nice to hear the congratulations, instead of, ‘I’m sorry,’” she said. “I know I never would have gotten it without her.”
***
It’s been one-year since Brianna’s passing and people continue to be in awe of Alicia’s strength.
Her Facebook wall is filled with messages from family and friends, telling her she’s an inspiration to many.
But Alicia admits her strength weakens from time to time.
“On a weekly basis there’s just like one moment when I am really down,” Alicia said. “At STU, people will walk into my room and say, ‘Oh, that’s such a nice picture of you’ and it’s not me, it’s Brianna.”
“It’s still really hard sometimes.”
She carries memories of her sister with her that do make her laugh.
“Two weeks after she got her license and one week before she died, we went down to UPEI and we stopped at an intersection. I was driving and she blasted the music and we rolled down the windows and fist-pumped until the light turned green,” Alicia said.
“We weren’t really sisters, we were more like best friends.”
