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A vacation to Florida ended tragically for the Drapeau family of Quebec, whose patriarch Fernand, 87, died on the drive home.

His wife and son, wary about the cost and hassle of going to an American hospital and getting Fernand’s body repatriated, decided to just keep driving to their Ormstown home, in Quebec’s Montérégie region.

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It wasn’t until they got to the Canada-U.S. border at Hemmingford, Que., that the Drapeaus were stopped and searched. It’s unclear at what point in the road trip exactly the man had died. Authorities believe he had been dead for at least a day before the family reached the Canadian border.

A border official called it a “first.”

Fernand Drapeau apparently began to experience health problems near the beginning of the trip and died on the road. The 2,500-kilometre trip from Ormstown to Florida would take 24 straight hours of driving to complete. Fernand and his wife lived just 15 minutes from the border where his body was found in the back of the family car.