Fifteen-year-old Kelly was the first of the six youngsters to be buried. All died a week ago when the car they were riding in missed a turn on the Chilliwack River Road and crashed headlong into a blossoming cherry tree. Their ages ranged from twelve to sixteen years; the driver was thirteen years of age when he died at the wheel of the 1990 Buick taken without permission and carrying a stolen licence plate.
According to reports carried in the Vancouver Sun, hundreds of native and non-native mourners filled the large gymnasium of the Ch'iyaqtel Community Centre; all paid tribute to Kelly. The priest who led the funeral mass joined Christianity with aboriginal tradition: Christian prayer and communion coupled with aboriginal drumming and song.
Young Kelly had been a sportsman whose easy smile filled others with joy. One of Kelly's cousins told the assembly, "You could have one of the crappiest days but as soon as you saw his million-dollar smile, it turned your hopes and everything around."
Kelly's coffin was draped with a blanket bearing the image of a red sunset and constellations of stars; a softball inscribed with Kelly's name and the name of his softball team - the Screaming Eagles - was placed on top of the coffin.
Kelly and his five companions need not have died so violently; they need not have died at such a young age. They would not have died had adults, whose paramount responsibilities are to care for their children, taken more heed and had been more mindful of the sudden antics of youth whose young bodies are filled with adrenaline. That adrenaline pumps furiously and causes the young to do impulsive things, things that can and do lead to disaster.
The 1990 Buick that the boys took was unlicensed but the keys were easily located. The car was not up on blocks, as perhaps it ought to have been given that it was not intended to be driven. The security guard who twice saw the death car and its occupants the evening the children died, did nothing to alert the police; even after he wondered how the car could have travelled the distance it had between first and second sighing in such a short time. Had he been more alert and had he notified the police, perhaps Kelly's cousin would not have had to say the words he did. Perhaps we will never know.
It has been said that God, be He a Christian God or an Aboriginal God, maps our future and that we know not His plans; perhaps Kelly's future and that of his companions were to be with God sooner rather than later; perhaps that is why the six took the Buick for a joy ride - such a misnomer.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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