LES COTEAUX – Mathis Gagnon walked out of St-Zotique Church clutching four helium balloons.
The 8-year-old stopped on the church steps, let them go, and waved goodbye.
The balloons represented his mother, father, and both of his siblings.
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“It’s a major tragedy,” said Jean Bedard, a missing children’s advocate who paid his respects at the funeral home near the church.
“When a kid who is 8-years-old loses his mother, father, brother and sister, that’s tough.”
On Dec. 23, Patrick Gagnon, Karine Desrochers-Gauthier and the couple’s daughter Lorie, 4, and son Felix, 2, all died in a house fire in Les Coteaux.
It was a disaster that seemed to touch everyone in the town of about 4,000 people.
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“I think of them every day,” said Veronique Poirier, who worked with Gagnon. “I’m very sad.”
Members of the community raised a total of $45,000 for Mathis Gagnon in the aftermath of the tragedy, and his mother’s sister Stephanie has taken him in.
His grandmother, Manon Desrochers, said the boy is looking forward to returning to school.
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But the tragedy was still a shock.
“It’s sad. I’ll cry every day,” Desrochers said.
“They loved each other so much. Even in death they’re still together.”
Referring to Mathis, she said the couple “left me with what was the most beautiful part of both of them.”
The Bishop of Valleyfield spoke at the funeral service.
He told the people who attended that Mathis should “continue, to keep hope because he is surrounded by so many loving people who will take care of him.”
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