They stood together in the twilight holding hands, grief etched on their faces — the prime minister, the leader of the Opposition and the Governor General of Canada.

Two are fathers, one a great-grandmother.

They were in a small town called Tumbler Ridge to mourn with its 2,400 residents the murders of six of the town’s children and two of its adults, and to pray for the survival of a young child fighting for her life in hospital. The children were 12- and 13-years-old. Bright, beautiful kids, full of promise, with a lifetime ahead of them when they left for school on a Tuesday morning. One of the adults was a teaching assistant at the school where the murders took place. The other, the mother of the troubled teen who pulled the trigger.

What do you do, what do you say to a community suffering such grief and trauma?

First of........

© Peterborough Examiner