Dauphin’s church community is backing the families and loved ones of the victims of Thursday’s bus crash near Carberry, Man., that ended in tragedy.
Father Brent Kuzyk led parishioners through Sunday service at St. George’s Ukranian Orthodox Church, where some of the victims once prayed.
“Because of the horrific scale of this tragedy it’s been difficult on everyone,” he said Sunday morning.
Kuzyk guarantees the community knows every person who was in the minibus, which collided with a semi-truck on the Trans-Canada Highway and killed 15, or knows someone who does.
The proximity of the tragedy has people turning to faith.
“Without faith there is absolutely no step toward the future, no step toward understanding, no step toward putting everything into perspective,” Kuzyk said.
The priest said the church is always there to help guide parishioners, and bring reason and understanding to them in the wake of tragic events.
Rona Kamfoly, a member of the church, knows only time will heal the community’s wounds.
“The people here, they lost their mothers, they lost their fathers, they lost their loved ones,” she said.
“It’ll take time.”
Kamfoly is not only mourning the loss of the people who lost their lives, but the wisdom they carried with them.
“A whole generation is gone.”
One identified victim, Nettie Nakonechny, left behind generations of family.
A statement from her granddaughter writes Nakonechny leaves behind eight grandkids and five great-grandkids.
“She was an amazing, mother, auntie and friend to anyone who met her loved (her),” Teah Alexander wrote to Global News, adding the impact her baba had on many people’s lives is “unmatched.”
Because Dauphin is a relatively tight-knit community, St. George’s parishioner Doris Dunfield is all but certain she’ll know each person who rode in the minibus as names begin to surface.
“It’s going to affect the community for a very long time,” she said.
Janice Mullen, a St. George’s member who moved away from the community but recently returned, said to honour the victims is to respect and remember them. Her godmother was one of the 15 killed.
“We’re Dauphin strong.”
— with files from Global News’ Marney Blunt