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On a cold grey morning, residents of Tumbler Ridge, B.C., made their way to their churches’ first Sunday services since the recent shootings in the tiny community in which nine people died.
An invisible thread connected the worshippers with another community some 14,000 kilometres away in the Zambian town Solwezi, where the life of one of the young victims was honoured.
Twelve-year-old Abel Mwansa Jr. was remembered in his family’s former hometown for his laughter and kindness.
Friends of Abel and his family held a celebration of his life at the City of Grace Chapel, under exposed timber beams and a corrugated metal roof.
Just as mourners in Tumbler Ridge have lit candles this past week to honour the eight victims who died in Tuesday’s mass shootings, the congregation in Solwezi lit candles to remember Abel, a boy who pastor Christopher Bwalya said earlier was “a little angel.”
A social media stream of the service showed mourners remembering Abel as a kind boy, sometimes mischievous and “quite naughty,” but who evoked “memories of love, memories of love, memories of kindness.”
A boy about Abel’s age recalled his friend as someone who “gave encouragement to everyone around him.”
Head pastor Bwalya, a friend of Abel Mwansa’s father who was also a pastor in the church, said in a message ahead of the service that there was “pain in both countries” of Zambia and Canada.
He said Abel Mwansa Sr. was hoping to “gather a bit of strength” to eventually return to Zambia to thank the community.
RCMP on Saturday removed the yellow tape that had surrounded Tumbler Ridge Secondary School since Tuesday, when 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar shot and killed five students and an educator after killing her mother and half brother at the family home.
Van Rootselaar then shot herself dead at the school.
The roads leading up to the school are still barricaded and guarded by private security.
The RCMP told CBC News the examination of the scene at the school is complete and the school has been turned over to the school district.
Autopsies on the bodies, including the shooter’s, are expected to be finished this weekend.
