The family of a teacher killed in a mudslide in Coquitlam, B.C., during the atmospheric river says Sonya McIntyre was an optimist with an unwavering affection for the next generation.
“She’s been a teacher, I want to say for the last 25 years,” cousin Jacqueline McIntyre told Global News.
“That’s been her main mission. Her life’s work. She loved those kids.”
Jacqueline said that while Sonya did not have kids of her own, she felt like her students were her adopted kids.
McIntyre’s body was found on Sunday afternoon, one day after the house she rented along Coquitlam’s Quarry Road washed away.
Jacqueline flew in from Los Angeles a day later and now has the heart-wrenching task of sorting through her cousin’s personal belongings.
While the two grew up miles from each other, they never grew apart.
“She worked at the bank… (she was) a TV journalist for a while,” Jacqueline said, before her 57-year-old cousin became a teacher.
Her death rocked the community of Aspenwood Elementary in Port Moody where Sonya was teaching before her death.
Now Jacqueline is heading back home with some physical items from her cousin’s home but mostly with memories.
“She was a force of nature…. so bright and optimistic and sunny,” she said.