4th Annual Celebration of Life

Today is not a day of tears but a day to remember those we have lost to suicide or who have attempted suicide, with hearts full of love. 

As the sun shone down on us on September 10th, Gary Manson asked us to turn our faces to the sun while we greeted the day in her warm embrace. We heard many words from many people but the main theme was to tell our stories. We must not keep suicide a secret. We need to reach out to one another for support and understanding.

We had a wonderful young man, Matt Dunae, from the Crisis Line who was inspirational.  Matt grew up not a block from the community, and uses hip hop to tell his story of pain and suicide.  He has broken the cycle of poverty and pain that leads to early death and has developed a unique gift for telling his story in order to let others know that the pain can stop and life can go on. We thank Matt for his gift of music and honesty with us.

We then went to the water on the point. Elders, young children and others released our yellow flowers into the sea. This symbolic gesture was to set free the grief and sorrow we carry for those we have lost.  As the flowers flew from our hands, all the diamonds in the sea that are sent by the wind and sunlight sparkled in our hearts.

It was a moving day as other told their stories of loss and regret. We ended with a lunch and warm hearts, to continue our everyday lives remembering that each of us has the power to help others and to listen to their stories.

We want to thank Coastland and Doug Pauze who attended, for their donation to help fund this event.

Hay ce:p qa to everyone that helped make our Celebration of Life event special. When we put on these events there are always people who go out of their way to help so they deserve a special thanks;

Lorraine Stewart, our Governance Clerk for doing lots and lots of everything

Doug and James for cleaning the point and smoothing the road so we could get the Elders van down

Connie Paul for the brushing and tear washing – ever our faithful mentor of culture

Charles Nelson our new Health Administrator as acting MC

Al Tommy, community member, for his hard work and cooking

Char Nelson for her reliable driving

Natasha Fraser, community member, for being a reliable assistant to Al and go to girl of the day

Last and never least, the Mental Health team, Chris, Phillis and Wayne for their support, strong back and counselling expertise      

Photos courtesy of Dave Bodaly superdave6693@gmail.com