FINAL FAREWELL TO MURDER VICTIMS
Community gathers to remember two sisters found dead at work site
They tumble out of two white, stretch limousines one after the next, sneakers, sandals and boots creating tiny dust storms as their feet hit the gravel. Some hold small pots bearing delicate flowers, while others clutch large bouquets of yellow and red roses.
Some look as young as four or five, others are in their teens, with pink streaks in their hair and black T-shirts sporting slogans and graphics.
They stand outside Morley’s Bearspaw Youth Centre on Monday, the usual locale for pickup basketball and other fun activities.
Instead, this gathering of adorable kids waits quietly as two white caskets are removed from white hearses and placed on gurneys to be wheeled inside.
Atop one casket is a streaming bouquet of red and pink roses. The other has white roses, lilies and other fragrant flowers. Both have white sashes adorned with the word “Cousin.”
At the funeral service for sisters Glynnis Emmaleen Lyna Fox and Tiffany Jonie Agnes Ear, one cannot help but be struck by the sight of so many children affected by such an unthinkable crime. The sisters, 36 and 39 respectively, were found dead on July 10 in a burned-out vehicle in the northwest community of Sage Hill.
The two female victims of a quadruple murder, say Calgary police, appear to have been simply in the “wrong place at the wrong time,” along with fellow victim Cody Pfeiffer, 25. According to police, the fourth victim, 26-year-old Hanock Afowerk, appears to have been targeted. The killer or killers of the four have yet to be found.
While a mass killing is shocking on its own, on this day it is compounded many times over by the presence of the children of the two inseparable sisters. Between Fox and Ear, it is a brood of 16, along with several more extended family members under the age of 21.
Together they watch as their mother’s and aunt’s coffins are led into the youth centre’s gymnasium, some wiping tears from their eyes. Inside, a crowd of more than 200 mourners is present for traditional songs, poems, readings from scripture and stories about the sisters.
Various extended family members stand at the podium and describe them as playful kids and warm, loving and non-judgmental women, whose greatest loves were their large families.
Cousin Carla Fox recalls how as little girls, they would haul out their grandma’s pots and pans — usually just after she had done the dishes — to make mud pies outside. “Grandma would say, ‘just bring them back later,’ ” says Fox, providing a moment of levity among the mourners.
Another spot of laughter comes when one of the girls’ favourite childhood pastimes, fishing for hours on end in a pond on the reserve, is told: the pond held no fish.
As adults, the two women are remembered as kind, strong and intelligent individuals.
Fox was a gregarious soul who loved to laugh often and heartily; Ear, a quieter person who became a grandmother not long ago, is lauded often for her ability to speak the Stoney Nakoda language fluently and her devotion to its traditions of beading and preparing wild meat.
Some speakers take the opportunity to talk about the need to address the problems of First Nations youth, while others focus on the importance of faith and hope. As they do, the constant din of scores of babies and toddlers rises into the rafters of the gymnasium.
Atop each white casket, framed photographs of the two sisters show women in the prime of life who shared infectious smiles and long, dark hair. In the programs handed out at the beginning of the memorial service, their big smiles light up each and every photograph as they pose with their many kids.
Those youngsters’ faces show varying degrees of understanding of the immensity of the tragedy — and how this horrible crime will impact the rest of their lives.