Sadness Takes Over

Jeff Green | Jun 05, 2024

It has been almost a month since a car crash on Burke Settlement Road killed Alex Cryer, a student at Granite Ridge Education Centre, and sent others to hospital.

And it has been almost three weeks since a boat crash on Bobs Lake killed Juliette Cote, Ryley Orr, and Kaila Bearman, who were all in their early 20s.

The OPP is still investigating, and it may be some time before a true picture of what happened emerges, and the legal system comes into play.

Meanwhile, waves and ripples of grief continue to wash through the small villages and back roads of the region. Four young people, with hope and plans and dreams that were shared by family and friends and acquaintances, all gone for no reason at all. They were not strangers. Even those who did not know them directly, know someone who was a friend or a co-worker or a classmate. This is what small communities are like, for good or bad.

The deaths have put a damper on the early summer in our region. It is felt at bbqs, at concerts, at yard sales. As people gather at this time of year to enjoy the sunshine, the warmth, the end of the school year and the coming cottage season, it is not quite the same.

When people talk about the day when the boat crash took place, May 18, everyone says the same thing. It had been a perfect day, a bonus midsummer day on Victoria Day Weekend. As word came out over the following 36 hours about what had happened, and the names were released, memories of that day changed for everyone.

The extreme nature of the boat and the car crash, the age of the victims, the senselessness of it all, is impossible to reconcile.

The summer is just starting, and as other events unfold, good and bad, this feeling will fade throughout the community, although not for those who were close to those who died or were seriously injured.

These people are deserving of their privacy, of course, and they are also deserving of whatever quiet support the rest of the community can offer.

Whatever else happens in the summer of 2024, May 10 and May 18 will remain in our hearts and minds.