MONTREAL- Family members sang ‘Happy Birthday’ as they delivered a cake to the kitchen table. Samantha Higgins’ 23rd birthday party came complete with candles, balloons and gifts. It’s yet another family celebration that she missed.
Since her murder in 2015, the Higgins family has been struggling to cope with her loss.
Her mother Vanessa says it’s getting easier, but not by much.
Celebrating Samantha’s birthday was one of the most difficult days of the year.
“Samantha’s birthday was the hardest,” she told Global News. “Her birthday was June 3rd and the anniversary of 11 months since she disappeared was a few days after.”
Reminders of Samantha are all around the Higgins’ Pointe-Saint-Charles apartment.
A plant was taken from where her body was discovered. Recently it flowered with pink blooms- Samantha’s favourite colour.
Now Vanessa keeps part of her daughter close to her heart.
She wears a custom heart-shaped necklace which contains some of Samantha’s ashes.
A tattoo across Vanessa’s left forearm bear the bookends to her daughters life along with ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’.
For the Higgins the biggest reminder of Samantha lives on in her children- 1-year-old Lorenzo and 5-year-old Anna.
“Anna and her are so much alike it’s crazy,” said Vanessa. “I have pictures of Sam at the same age and they are very much identical except for the hair colour.”
The children now live with Vanessa’s brother just outside Montreal.
Anna, being a curious five-year-old, still asks about her mother and why she isn’t home.
“To hear my granddaughter say she misses her mom… It’s just hard to see her confused like that.”
Recently close family and friends sent balloons skyward to commemorate Samantha.
Another memorial is planned for July 7th, marking the day she went missing and a sombre celebration of her life.
WATCH: Family remembers Samantha Higgins
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