Touched by the death of a 9-year-old girlthe community of Saint-Ubalde, in Portneuf, decided to stick together to help the bereaved family.
Monday morning, several families gathered at the Recreation Center of the small municipality of some 1,500 inhabitants to provide support to bereaved parents.
“This morning, the arena will be open. […] I invite you to come join me […] to help each other and [qu’on trouve des] ideas together,” wrote Mélanie Marcoux on Facebook.
The day before, around 2:40 p.m., a little girl lost her life after being buried under a snow fort built behind her father’s house which collapsed. Rescue maneuvers were not sufficient to save the child who was in cardiopulmonary arrest.
“At the moment I am at a loss for words. No explanation will be acceptable my beautiful chip, “wrote Mme Marcoux, the day before.
A Go fund me fundraising campaign has also been launched to relieve the girl’s parents in these difficult times.
“Everyone knows each other and we stick together. We are like that here, that’s how we are going to get through this ordeal, ”suggests the mayor of the municipality, Guy Germain.
A “difficult” day
Several of the parents gathered in the morning first had to take their children to the primary school in La Morelle, which the victim attended, a few meters from the arena. The usual goodbye hugs were particularly emotional on this gray day.
The return to work also seemed painful for the teachers who displayed a low mine at the start of the school year.
Photo Marie-Pier Roy, TVA Nouvelles
“It’s going to be a very difficult day for everyone, but we’re here to support each other and get through it,” sighs Marie-Claude Gignac, acting secretary general at the Portneuf School Service Center.
A protocol has been put in place within the school, but also in the community, to support people who need it.
- Listen to the various facts chronicle of Maxime Deland, journalist at the QMI Agency at the microphone of Benoit Dutrizac on QUB-radio :
“It’s a safety net that is necessary in situations like that,” continues Mme Gignac.
“It makes you think”
Met not far from the place of the tragedy, a friend of the family simply couldn’t believe the tragedy which snatched the life of a child who “had her life ahead of her”.
“On Saturday again, I saw them playing in the snow laughing and I thought to myself how pleasant it was to see young people still playing outside today. It strikes…”, blows Martin Perreault, himself a father.
“An event like this makes you think about the dangers that await your own children. It can come out of nowhere,” he laments.
– With the collaboration of TVA Nouvelles