Six-year-old laid to rest After ctrain tragedy
Girl who was killed by train near station ‘brightened, provided light to everyone’
No words were needed to express the grief felt by hundreds who gathered to pay final respects to six-year-old Efua Isabel Ogbeide.
Efua was laid to rest Tuesday afternoon, just over a week since she was killed by a CTrain near Somerset-Bridlewood station.
Although guests were invited by the family to share tributes to Efua during the funeral held at Foster’s Garden Chapel, her bright smile, which radiated throughout a slide show of photos from her too-short life, spoke for itself.
“We are all gathered here just because of this little angel,” Pastor Festus Fariyibi told those in attendance. “Every life is unique, with a unique story … We don’t really know why things happen this way.”
Tears flowed throughout the room as mourners watched Efua grow up in photos shown to them during the slide show tribute, set to the tune of You Are My Sunshine, followed by Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.
In his words of comfort to the family, Fariyibi compared life to a marketplace, where everyone comes to buy or sell items, but only temporarily.
“In this world I’m talking about, the pile of trading includes every human activity, like getting married, having children, making friendships, building careers, building businesses,” he said. “No one really leaves or stays in the market permanently. Everyone ultimately returns home.
“No one stays in this world forever,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter how long you stay, whether six years like Efua or 33 years like Jesus Christ or 130 years like Abraham. Everyone returns back home.”
In the days following the accident, dozens of toys were left to mark the spot where Efua was killed, just a few feet from the train crossing at 162nd Avenue and Shawville Rise S.E.
A GoFundMe page was launched by a friend to help the family with funeral costs. It had raised more than $28,000 by Tuesday.
Family friend Timothy Afolayan said Efua wandered off from the family home before being struck by the train.
“Efua means light and, like her name, she brightened and provided light to everyone who knew her,” Afolayan wrote online.
She attended St. Jude, an elementary school in the southwest neighbourhood of Woodbine, about 10 kilometres from the scene of the accident.
A spokesperson for the Calgary Catholic School District said St. Jude would be offering grief counselling for students and staff.
Efua is survived by her father, Jeff, mother, Carol, and younger siblings, Osaze and Micheal.