When Oriana Knights didn’t hear from her husband half an hour after he left for a spin in her father’s car, she feared the worst.

Neither her father nor her husband, Jeff, picked up their phones, and his GPS showed his location as Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital. When she called the emergency room, a doctor said her husband had been in a serious car accident.

“He said ‘to be frank with you, we’re trying to keep him alive,’” Oriana told CTV News Toronto.

She said that police found Jeff without vital signs and that while doctors were able to revive him at the hospital, nothing could be done to save his life.

On April 29, York Regional Police responded to reports of a single-vehicle collision near Spadina and Weldrick roads. They said a vehicle, a Jaguar, had veered off the road and struck a tree.

Two male victims were transported to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Police later said one of the victims, who was believed to be a passenger, died.

The victim was later identified as Jeff Knights.

Oriana drove past the scene of the accident on the way to the hospital.

“We literally turned left on Spadina and saw the police tape. And I said, Oh my god, that’s my dad’s car.”

Oriana's father remains in hospital with critical injuries.

Jeff and Oriana were married for five years, but they knew each other for 13. Eleven days earlier, Oriana had given birth to their third child. They were on vacation, having a family dinner at their cousin’s house in Richmond Hill, when Jeff and his father-in-law decided to take the car out for a drive.

“For those 11 days we spent together, he would literally just grab me and say you’re amazing, you’re superwoman. I’m in awe of you,” she said. “This is how we spent our last two weeks together. We were stupidly happy.”

Their eldest child is four years old.

Oriana said she is still in denial, thinking her husband is on vacation, expecting him to walk through the door.

“He's the kind of man you wish your daughter would marry. He's the kind of man you wish your son would grow into. I never took it for granted. I fell asleep every night and I said thank you for this amazing man to grow old with.”

Oriana said it was really hard to tell their children what happened to their father. She said she sees him in her kids.

“I told them in plain language that he had died, but that his love would live in their heart and that daddy is now everywhere.”

Jeff worked for SOCAN, the Canadian copyright collective for music publishers and composers.

“The support is ridiculous. I knew my husband was loved and I knew we were supported as a family, but I didn’t know the magnitude of it.”

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to support the family. The page describes Jeff as “the candle in a dark room” and encourages people to help “keep that light going for his family he left behind.”

-With files from CTV's Tracy Tong