POLICE: Man arrested after police lock down neighbourhood A3 Friday, April 26, 2013 Blackhawks bring hockey title home to Prince George B5
Newsline 250-564-0005
www.pgfreepress.com
Remembering Lakeland De Ly nd a PILON/ Fre e Pre s s
Rhonda Roche, (left) supported by Reverend Susan Scott, speaks to the crowd gathered at the Civic Centre Tuesday night to mark the first year anniversary of the Lakeland tragedy, an explosion and fire at the mill which took the life of Rhonda’s husband, Glenn, as well as Al Little.
DELYNDA PILON newsroom@pgfreepress.com
A sombre crowd filled the Civic Centre Tuesday night as city residents gathered to mark the one-year anniversary of the Lakeland Mill explosion and fire, an incident which claimed the lives of Glenn Roche and Al Little, injured a number of people, and forever changed the lives of many. Susan Scott, a member of the clergy who offered her services at the hospital as soon as she discovered what happened at Lakeland, officiated the service. Rhonda Roche spoke eloquently of her husband, a man she described as her best friend, someone who had an opinion he wasn’t shy about sharing. Glenn, who was killed that night, called her shortly before the explosion, just to say goodnight. There’s a lot of things she would have said if she had known that was to be the last conversation they would ever have. She would have told him she wouldn’t change anything about the 22 years they shared. She would have thanked him for being her best friend. She would have thanked him for their son.
e l e C
Rhonda said she feels she knows what Glenn would have said in return. He would have said it hurts not to see his son turn into a teenager, learn to drive, graduate and start a family of his own. “It’s hard to imagine the rest of my life without him,” she said. She talked a little about Glenn, said he started at Lakeland when he was in high school, cleaning up, then worked his way up the ladder. After the Burns Lake fire, and after he extinguished a fire in his work area in January, Glenn told Rhonda something that seemed nearly prophetic. First he told her during the blaze he helped put out it seemed like the air itself was on fire. “He told me it’s not just that mill. One day it’s going to happen here, and it’s going to take me too. “My husband went to work one night, and he never came home.” Mayor Shari Green remembers calling 21-year-old newly elected Mayor Luke Strimbold after she received word of the Burns Lake mill explosion in January and offering aid. The first call she received on her cellphone following
the explosion was from Strimbold, offering the same. “I think of the Roche and Little families, and I think how difficult it must be for them,” Green said, emotion cracking her voice. She talked about the first employee meeting, one she was invited to attend, and watching Greg Stewart, Sinclar Group president, answering the multitude of tough questions put to him by family members and employees of Lakeland. She said she reflects on the community and how it came together, in particular firemen, ambulance attendants, Northern Health employees, the many city employees who worked tirelessly behind the scenes ,and all those residents who helped and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to help those affected. “In the dark of a tragedy like this, the spirit and love of the community is the light,” she said. Steelworkers president Frank Everit, Neil Ginter, an employee at Lakeland, and Stewart all expressed their admiration for the courage and dedication of the ‘Lakeland family.’ Special mention was made, time and again, of all those professionals and non-professionals alike who went beyond the call of duty to help.
s …COME SEE WHAT IS NEW TO NR MOTORS THIS WEEKEND … r a e y 6 4 g n i t bra
Y SAHLH E IVERDD 4TTHH & 5 N N R , A Keystone Raptor 300 MP Ke 3 Y MA MOTORS RV & MARINE SALES 805 1 st Avenue
250-563-889 1 or 1-800-563-8893
2525 KingÀsher
Suzuki VL1500
Winnebago Access 24 V
John Deere Lawn Tractor D130
BEST SELECTION, BEST DEALS … www.nrmotors.ca
Campion Chase 600i 250-564-8558
ORTHERN
1-877-564-8558
ECREATION
5387 CONTINENTAL W AY