Lac-Mégantic begins Wednesday three days of commemorations to mark the ten years of the railway tragedy which claimed the lives of 47 people. In the community, we are sometimes torn between “the desire to have to remember and the desire to move forward”.
In the Sainte-Agnès church, Wednesday evening, a baroque music concert will be held, then a concert where the Méganticois have been invited to perform.
At the end of the afternoon, Richard Custeau gave himself up to a sound test by interpreting Angel by Sarah McLachlan, with her only guitar. He lost his big brother Réal ten years ago. He was 57 years old.
I miss him, I miss him every year.
Richard Custeau on his brother Réal
Réal had gone out with friends to the Musi-Café the evening when the train carrying crude oil derailed, then exploded, in the heart of the city.
“I knew just about everyone in there,” says Richard Custeau. He has for several years been the representative of bereaved families, and says he is “proud” to give his songs as gifts to the victims, their families, and to “everyone who suffers from this tragedy”.
The church is the best passage to transmit my two songs,” he said, adding that two people committed suicide following the tragedy. “We must not forget them,” says Mr. Custeau.
Tonight, the singer-guitarist will also perform The heart is a birdby Richard Desjardins.
“I’m not even afraid of making a mistake. And if I’m wrong, it’s going to be even more beautiful, because I’m going to continue,” he said, walking away.
Disarray and Solidarity
PHOTO CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER, THE PRESS
Father Steve Lemay and Father Garrick Huang
Father Steve Lemay said that he could not be anywhere else than Lac-Mégantic for the commemorations of the tenth anniversary of the tragedy.
“Like many people, we are torn by the duty to remember and to move forward, to look ahead. We always have this ambivalence,” said Father Lemay.
He was parish priest in 2013. He slept in the presbytery, just in front of the place where the cars exploded.
He remembers having been “seized by the disarray” of the Méganticois in search of their loved ones, but also of the surges of solidarity which immediately sprang from the drama.
Nevertheless, the funeral of the 47 victims, he did not celebrate them all, he “did a lot”. He left Lac-Mégantic in early 2015 for Rome. “The bishop saw that I was tired,” says Mr. Lemay, who explains that he left with a certain feeling of abandonment.
Being away from his community was the “most difficult time for him”, he says.
While he is talking to us in the church, a man walks up to him, greets him warmly.
“Jean lost a daughter in the tragedy,” said Father Lemay.
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, at 1:14 a.m. sharp — the moment when the heart of Lac-Mégantic stopped beating for a moment — a silent march will be held downtown.
Thursday morning, a commemorative mass at the Sainte-Agnès church will be celebrated. The bells will ring 47 times, in memory of the victims.