A commemorative mass held for girl killed in the Laval daycare bus attack
Posted February 25, 2023 5:33 pm.
Last Updated February 25, 2023 6:19 pm.
On Saturday a commemorative mass was held for Maëva David, one of the two children killed when a bus crashed into a daycare in Laval north of Montreal.
“(I’m here) to show my respect to the child and her family. It brings me a lot of sadness,” said Daniel Poirier
The ceremony, taking place at the Sainte-Rose-de-Lima church, where stuffed animals, bears, and flowers remain on the front steps. The five-year-old – called a ray of sunshine by her parents – remembered.
An attendee of the funeral said, “We came for the little girl – to pray, for god to give courage to her parents, then to all those who worked at the daycare center, for the children who have experienced this.”
In a touching letter posted to French media on the 13th of February by Maëva’s parents, they described her as someone who “loved life” and was “bursting with energy”.
Jessica Therrien and Nicolas David say their daughter, “Always had the right word to make you laugh or to make you react. Her daycare was a real way of life for her where she loved to go to play with her friends” and that “ She will continue to shine in her own way by what she has taught us.”
The Laval bus driver who took the lives of both Maëva and Jacob Gauthier and injured 6 other children has been deemed fit to stand trial on Friday but was ordered to undergo a second mental health evaluation.
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“The parents are very courageous despite the pain impacting them. We think of our grandkids if this were to happen to us I wouldn’t know how to deal with it so we came here to encourage and give support to her parents,” Said another attendee of the funeral.
Inside the church, little notes made by those also lending their support, one reading, rest in peace little angels another saying you will not be forgotten.
Outside the church, a memorial, there since the tragic incident took the lives of 5-year-old Maëva and four and a half-year-old Jacob Gauthier,a flag reads “Laval is whole heartily with you”.
Michel Bouchard the Church pastor said “the that for me it’s more important is I explained to the couple that now the only thing that you can do is to offer that your kids to God. The reactions can make me more peaceful. It’s not finished it starts another way.”
