Little Taliyah Marsman loved to dance. Her face would light up as she would twirl around without a care in the world. It’s only through videos captured before her tragic death that her family can relive the five-year-old’s happiest moments.
“Taliyah would pretty much dance to anything and I think it gave her a sense of freedom, free-form of just being whoever she wanted to be,” her uncle Scott Hamilton told Global News.
Taliyah’s mother Sara Baillie was found dead inside her northwest Calgary home on July 11, 2016, sparking an Alberta-wide Amber Alert. Three days later, that search came to a heartbreaking end when Calgary police found Taliyah’s body just outside of the city limits.
Watch below: Family, friends, and complete strangers touched by their tragic deaths said good-bye to five-year-old Taliyah Marsman and her mother Sara Baillie at a memorial service in July 2016. Nancy Hixt reports.
Police said they believed Marsman was killed just hours after Baillie.
READ MORE: Taliyah Marsman and Sara Baillie funeral allows loved ones to share memories
Time hasn’t made the loss of Taliyah and her mother Sara Bailie any easier; the tears still flow freely every single day.
“We feel as sad and as heartbroken and devastated as we did a year ago,” Taliyah’s aunt Marilynne Hamilton said.
The family is finding solace in several treasured memorial tributes, including a dance scholarship called the Taliyah Leigh Memorial Scholarship Award.
READ MORE: Family of Taliyah Marsman, Sara Baillie speak of loss: ‘they’ll always be in our hearts’
The honour has been given for the first time in summer 2017 to a child who shares Taliyah’s passion for dance.
“We will, as long as we are able to, help somebody else that may be struggling…continue with the memorial scholarship in Taliyah’s name,” Marilynne said.
There’s also a special place of peace the family can now visit. Along a path deep in Bowness Park sits a memorial bench.
The plaque on the back of the bench reads:
“Your laughter will forever fill our hearts.”
“I love it, I love it here,” Marilynne said as she sat on the bench Tuesday.
It’s across the river from a spot where Taliyah loved to fish.
“It’s got some very happy memories…and for the most part, that’s what we’re living on, is the memories,” Scott said.
Sara and Taliyah will be remembered as the inseparable mother-daughter duo whose lives were cut far too short.
“They were amazing girls,” Marilynne said, crying. “It’s just so heart-wrenching and such a sad story.”
“When it happened, the community of Calgary, the people of Calgary just felt our pain. Everybody missed them or was saddened by what had happened just as much as we were. They captured the hearts of Calgarians.”
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