By now, Abbie Speir would have been coaching kids softball and enjoying the warm weather with her own kids.
Instead, the Saskatchewan community of Yellow Grass held a fundraiser called Abbie’s Day on Saturday to raise money for the three children Speir left behind.
“Abbie was a big part of her community, so we really wanted to give back to her family and to honour her,” Yellow Grass Community Club Jen Wilkinson said. “It’s also very healing for the community to get together and do something in such a helpless situation.”
Abbie was found dead after a suspicious house fire in Yellow Grass in April. Her partner, Kevin Okafor, has been charged with first-degree murder in her death.
READ MORE: First-degree murder charge in Yellow Grass, Sask. death
However, that’s not what the people in Yellow Grass wanted to remember her for. Abbie’s Day highlighted everything Speir loved and brought to the community.
The event included a slip and slide, a softball tournament and a cabaret at night.
“She would be right in there,” Wilkinson said. “She would be playing ball, she would be working her butt off. I’m sure she would be on the slip and side with the kids – she would be all for it and I guarantee she would close it down at the end of the night.”
“She was just so full of life and she was just one of those people that you just gravitated towards,” volunteer and friend Krista Namissal said. “Everybody liked her, everybody loved her. If you were in a room, you wanted to be sitting beside her.”
READ MORE: One woman dead after suspicious fire in Yellow Grass, Sask.
Namissal and Speir shared time at their children’s hockey games and became fast friends. They bonded over the sport and girls nights.
“There’s so many things that happen that you want to talk to Abbie about, or you kind of want to nudge her and say something under your breath,” Namissal said. “It’s hard to be here without her because she was such a big part of it.”
After the fundraiser, a park bench and a tree will be planted in Speir’s honour at a Yellow Grass park to keep her memory alive.
“The bench is very special,” Wilkinson said. “It is painted purple and has a leopard print on it, custom-designed to Abbie’s style… the bench and tree are planted to overlook the playground so anybody there can be watching over their children – just as we feel Abbie is watching over us.”
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