Skyrah Tawiyaka was “the life of the house.”
Her mother, Alma Rope, said her busy seven-year-old got into everything, even her makeup bag.
In the foyer of the Regina General Hospital, Rope opens a picture on her cellphone. It’s of her and Skyrah.
Rope mustered a small laugh and explains the dark shapes drawn on Skyrah’s forehead near her eyes.
“She seen me doing my eyebrows,” Rope said. “Her too, she wanted to do her eyebrows.”
From the photo, Skyrah smiles back at her grief-stricken mother, who has been at the Regina General Hospital since Sunday night.
That’s when Skyrah and her grandparents were killed following a car crash on Highway 10, northeast of the city.
Skyrah’s two older sisters — also in the vehicle — are in-patients recovering from serious injuries.
“I just wish it would go away. I wish I could take it back and kiss my daughters better,” Rope said.
Family first
Alma Rope and her husband, Jordan Rope, have seven kids.
Skyrah, one of the middle children, was the glue that held everyone together, her mother said.
“She was very close with all of them,” Rope said of Skyrah and her siblings. “She was always happy to include everybody.”
Skyrah and the other older kids made regular weekend trips from their Regina home to the Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation, of which they are members, to visit their grandparents.
“We like to let them go out to the country so they can play outside and do whatever they want and they’re protected in our community,” Rope said.
On Sunday nights, Skyrah and her siblings would come back to Regina to get ready for school.
A burgeoning artist
Skyrah was in Grade 2 at Grant Road School.
The Ropes, both business students at the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies, did homework alongside her in the evenings.
Skyrah, said her mother, would read. Her favourite book was The Book With No Pictures.
But the little girl was most passionate about art.
Skyrah liked to paint. So did her little brother.
“They actually went into their sister’s room and painted the whole wall with red, purple and blue paint,” Rope said.
It wasn’t washable.
“It’s still there,” Rope said. “She wasn’t too happy about it.”
A little princess
Skyrah had a heart of gold, her parents said.
“She was always trying to make people happy and smile,” Rope said. “She was always helping us. Any little small, tedious task, she was, ‘I’ll do it.’”
But in some ways, she was a little diva — fascinated by applying makeup, playing dress-up and watching princess movies.
She was looking forward to seeing Frozen 2 this upcoming weekend with her sisters and grandparents.
“They were part of the family. They loved the girls,” Jordan said. “They made an effort to come down and see them and enjoy time with them.”
Skyrah was particularly close to her grandfather.
“She was always with him,” said Rope, who finds some solace in the fact that her little girl and grandparents are still together now. “She was his little princess.”
“There’s nothing that can ever replace them.”