Crystal Poechman-Colville lost a lot of her memory after the 1985 tornado that ripped through Barrie, leaving eight dead — including her younger brother, then nine.
Since then, Poechman-Colville said hearing others’ experiences and talking about her own has helped her cope with what happened 34 years ago when she was 12 year old.
“I remember watching the sky, and the sky was moving so fast that day when I was at school,” she said.
Poechman-Colville points to the tornado’s 30th anniversary memorial, which was organized by documentarian Judith Banville. The memorial was also captured in Banville’s film, The Barrie Tornado Remembered, which will have its public premier Friday evening at the local Grace United Church.
WATCH: Remembering the deadly Barrie tornado 30 years later
“There’s still a lot of people hurting in Barrie about the tornado,” Banville said. “On the 30th anniversary, I brought together these survivors and first responders and weather experts, and they shared some astounding stories of their survival.”
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For Poechman-Colville, the 30th anniversary helped her put into perspective what she experienced as a child.
“I ended up doing a lot of healing,” she said. “That 30th anniversary, which I never thought I’d be able to handle, allowed me to put not the trauma of losing my brother to bed, but the trauma of the physical experience of what I saw, of what I heard.”
According to Banville, there have been many miraculous stories shared about how much worse the tornado could have been. For example, she recalled one fire chief who was present during the tornado who said Barrie escaped an incident that could have been much more devastating.
“One of the biggest surprises for people was when he talked about how Barrie narrowly escaped a much worse disaster from a school bus that almost landed on a big propane tank that would have created a huge explosion,” Banville said.
Now, Poechman-Colville said she hopes that people who attend Friday’s event can heal as much as she did from the 30th anniversary memorial.
“I’ll never heal because my brother passed away. That’ll never go away, but the fear is much less.”
The event will begin at 6 p.m. with a showing of Banville’s documentary and will be followed by a discussion that will allow people to share their experiences.
“When they come together and share stories of tragedy, they realize that other people feel the same way that they did, and it helps them process things, too,” Banville finished.
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