Editorial: Sad day in the Bay

Tragedy struck Thunder Bay this week.

Four-year-old Willow Scott-Hannam was killed Monday when a horse got spooked at Fort William Historical Park, rolling the carriage attached to it over her young, fragile body.

When incidents like this occur, making sense of why it happened is never easy.

For friends and family, their lives will never be the same. For others, with children of their own, the news hits way too close to home.

Parents are not supposed to outlive their children. Four-year-olds are supposed to chase butterflies and play with dolls, laugh and gurgle at their parents’ silliness and bring joy to the world around them.

It’s all-too-easy to start pointing fingers and laying blame.

Were officials at Fort William Historical Park at fault? Where were the teachers, parents or educational assistants when the tragedy – that also resulted in injuries to five other children – occurred? Could it have been prevented?

These are all questions whose answers will come in time.

For now it’s time to let friends and family remember the bubbly young girl they’ve lost, a girl described as the life of any party, whose time on Earth was way too short, but who during it touched every person she met.

Rest in peace, little angel.