Gilles competes at Skate Canada International with her mom Bonnie in her heart
LAVAL, Que. — Piper Gilles has a photo of her mom Bonnie taken the day she and Paul Poirier skated their short dance at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
Bonnie is dressed in a Canadian team T-shirt and hat, the guest of honour at an Olympic viewing party. She’s surrounded by friends in her Colorado Springs home.
Gilles hopes her mom was happy in the photo. She likes to think she was proud.
Bonnie was the only member of the large Gilles family who wasn’t in Gangneung Arena to see Piper make her Olympic debut in February. She was in the late stages of cancer, a brain tumour having robbed her of her personality — and the ability to speak and walk.