On April 8, the Canora Civic Centre was the site of a candle-lit vigil organized by the Canora Minor Hockey Association to show support for the Humboldt Broncos, hit by tragedy only two nights earlier.
Over 100 Canora and area residents gathered at the Civic Centre, where countless hockey games have been played over the years, to remember the lives lost in the bus crash, those who were injured, and those who lost loved ones.
The vigil coincided with the televised vigil held in Humboldt.
Dwayne Wolkowski, one of the organizers, said the incident hit just about everyone hard in communities all over Saskatchewan and throughout Canada.
“Every hockey team across Canada is part of a big community. We need to recognize that and pay tribute to Humboldt and to the Broncos.”
Kelly Beblow, Canora Minor Hockey Association president, welcomed everyone in attendance.
Pastor Mavis Watson lead the meditation and the lighting of candles.
“May the light of God surround you, the love of God enfold you, the presence of God watch you. We come into this sacred space tonight to remember our losses, to grieve, to find comfort and to walk on the path toward healing and to worship. I invite you to bring to mind a loss that has affected you deeply, the death of a loved one, a loss of a relationship, a job, a dream, a loss of health, a loss that needs healing. We particularly remember the loss of 16 lives including two fathers this past Friday in that horrific accident.
“We bring this remembering of endings into the presence of God. The presence of God symbolized by this Christ candle, the visible reminder of the invisible Spirit walking with us here tonight and all across our province and our nation.
“We light a candle of memory for the people we have lost, the deaths and endings we each are remembering here tonight.
“Let us light our candles together. This is a fragile flame. It can be extinguished with a gust of air. Or, if left to burn, the flame will eventually consume the candle. A candle has its allotted span of time to burn. Yet, while the candle burns it radiates light and heat. So, long after the candle is extinguished or consumed, the fire of life and love still burns, and so will our memory of these fine people burn long after tonight.”
Watson read a scripture passage from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.
“For everything there is a season, and time for every purpose under heaven; a time to be born and a time to die, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to seek and a time to lose."
Watson spoke of the effects of death and the process of healing.
“We hold our experience of a death, a loss and an ending. Some of us hold them close, some more at a distance. Together, we have lit these candles, or markers on the road, markers that hold the light towards healing. And let us pause, and remember.
“We light this candle to signify community, the communities where those who died did their living, and were cared for in their dying; the communities where our loss occurred, especially in Humboldt tonight, and the community we create tonight in our being together here. We need one another in our grief, in our loss and in our starting again. We each need a place to be really heard.
“We light this candle to acknowledge our grief. We cannot reverse the loss. We can, however, enter fully into the pain and hurt of our loss and thereby slowly move through to a measure of healing.
“We light this candle to signify that our sorrow and joy are woven together. We cannot deny the grief that these deaths have brought. We must let it spill from our hearts. We must let our sorrow have its time, because our joy had its time. It is because we knew, loved and delighted in our relationships we remember tonight that we feel such sorrow in their deaths.
“Our joy came first. Because of the joy, we feel such sorrow now. Though sorrow is strong when we remember our grief, there will be a new day when once again our joy in life will be greater than our sorrow. Let us remember our own losses and through that remembrance we can empathize with the families of the Humboldt team.
“We light this candle to recognize the mystery of life and death. In awe and wonder our thoughts stretch to understand where we come from when we are born and where we go when we die. Death makes us all reflect on our eternity.
“We light this candle in thanksgiving. We are thankful for the gift of life, even though life does not come without death and endings. We are thankful for these people whose lives touched and changed other lives. We are thankful that memories can help heal grief and bring us into deeper understandings of our self, the world and our relationship with God. We are thankful for love that never dies.
“The light of these people that we remember has changed to shine in another time and place with God. The light of God remains with us and accompanies us, as do the lights of community, grief, joy, mystery and thanksgiving. Let us blow out our candles as a symbol of the end of life’s light and the beginning of the eternal journey.
“And now may the peace of Christ which passes all understanding, the peace that comes with acceptance and thanksgiving, the peace that rises above the strains of the earth be and abide with us all, both this day and forevermore.
“Amen.”
After the meditation there was a moment of silence to remember the 16 lives lost in this tragedy.
The Canora air cadets took part the vigil, and joined with others in attendance to send condolences to the families and others affected by this tragedy, said Darren Paul, Canora air cadets’ commanding officer.
“The cadets stood at attention somberly and respectfully for the prayers and the moment of silence. After removing their headdress, they reflected on the vigil for the Humboldt Broncos and what it stood for.”
O’ Canada was played.
Beblow closed the vigil and thanked those in attendance for their support for Humboldt and the Broncos.
