They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words and taking just one look at Jackie McLean and Robb Costello, it’s easy to see, they were two people almost molded for each other, destined for a life of nothing but happiness.
“It sounds cliché but it really was a storybook romance. I have never known anybody that respected me as much as he did,” explained Jackie McLean from her parents’ Moncton living room.
Her mother Lynn McLean, remembers Costello as a man who treated her grandchildren as if they were his own, a man who had a smile for anyone he would meet.
“I could see almost in an instant the effect he had on Jackie from the time we first met him,” said Lynn.
The couple’s storybook romance was cut short on Aug. 10 when a gunman opened fire in an apartment complex on Fredericton’s north side.
Four people were killed, two of them police officers, Constables Sarah Burns and Rob Costello. The events of that day are still crystal clear for McLean.
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“Rob always told me that I never needed to worry when a police officer came to the house unless they were wearing a white shirt. And I saw Martin come through my front door and he was wearing a white shirt and I just started screaming, ‘No, no, no,” explained McLean as she clutched a phone with Costello’s picture on the lock screen.
Mathew Vincent Raymond is facing four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the tragic shooting. He’s been in and out of court while the case makes its way through the justice system.
For 61 days, McLean and her family have worked hard to pick up the pieces of their broken hearts, forging forward trying to find their new normal.
“One of the things about traumatic grief is that it is also an opportunity for traumatic growth and you could either choose to shrivel up or you can choose to grow,” said McLean. “Although I’m tremendously sad, I also do my very best to honour his spirit, what he wanted.”
An outlook on life that’s admired by her mother Lynn.
“We have to forge on, you can’t give up, you have to keep your life positive and do the best you can with what you have.”
When meeting McLean, it’s easy to see her strength and willingness to believe even through such tragedy, traits influenced surely by who she calls her “handsome man,” the “light in her life.”
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