I dont see a single cruel comment by me on this thread. This mother made a rash, foolish decision that cost her life and that of her sons over a soccer ball. An 8 year old in a canoe without a life jacket?
As cold as the water was the life jackets would have made no difference at all. They would have only had minutes.
When the canoe capsized they should have swum under it, put their chest and arms over the thwarts between the gunwales to hang there in the water. Their bodies then would have been found with the canoe.
Surviving was not possible after their canoe overturned in three foot waves on a huge ocean bay of 64,299-square-miles this time of year.