More than 1,000 people gathered at North Pointe Community Church on Friday night to remember Thomas Wedman's "joie de vivre". Thomas Wedman, 6, died on Sept. 27 after being struck by a school bus while walking to school.
More than 1,000 people gathered at North Pointe Community Church on Friday night to remember Thomas Wedman's "joie de vivre".
Thomas Wedman, 6, died on Sept. 27 after being struck by a school bus while walking to school.
Spirits were high at the public memorial service as families, friends, school pals, Boy Scouts groups, members of the Edmonton Police Service and the school community gathered to celebrate Thomas' life through songs, prayers and video clips.
They chuckled at anecdotes shared by Thomas' father Jeff in his eulogy.
"He tried his hand at hockey," shared Jeff Wedman, an EPS officer. "But was always more interested in reading the advertisements on the boards than in chasing the puck."
"The boy loved to … play in water sprinklers. He collected feathers and enjoyed throwing rocks into any kind of body of water."
"He was not scared of heights, pulled out his own baby teeth, ate almost every kind of food willingly…"
"He had an imagination that the words wild, inventive, inspired, and limitless do not go far enough to describe."
Thomas' brother Ethan said his baby brother was different from other kids.
"I can honestly say he lived life to its fullest. Not by doing crazy stunts or facing life and death experiences, but by bringing joy to everyone he met," he wrote in the program, handed out at the memorial.
Thomas participated in Beavers, took swimming, skating, piano and art lessons.
Thomas was a Grade 2 student at Ă©cole Marie Poburan. He was walking to school with his dad and older brother Isaac around 8:40 a.m. on Sept. 27. Jeff explained both boys ran ahead of him. Thomas was crossing the street when he was hit by a school bus making a right hand turn onto Woodlands Road from Sir Winston Churchill Avenue.
The school bus was contracted by St. Albert Public Schools and was heading to Keenooshayo Elementary School.
Principal of Ă©cole Marie Poburan, Marie Gamache-Hauptman, and vice-principal Tawyna Schile shared memories of Thomas provided by his classmates and teachers.
"His teachers shared that at times they found him helping others with their work, even if he wasn't quite finished his own," said Schile. She read out tributes from the six-year-old's classmates, describing him as a nice, funny boy that was an "amazing friend".
"Thomas' friendliness, spunk, sense of humour, contagious smile, gentleness, joie de vivre, care free spirit, playfulness were but some of the hearts he shared with the community," added Gamache-Hauptman.
Padre Lawrence Peck of the EPS, one of the officiators of the service, said that despite Thomas' death, people should leave with hope in their hearts.
"Though Thomas' life has been snatched away from us ... he rests in the hands and the arms of an almighty God that has gathered him up and has taken him home," he said.
"Through this loss, may we never move away from the embrace we are offering each other today. We all need that embrace. We all need an assurance that in the midst of tragedy, in the midst of death and in the midst of despair, there is hope."
Jeff remembered the youngest of his three sons.
"My beautiful son was an angel, and I can no longer hold him in my arms, hear his beautiful laughter, nor feel his wonderful hugs around my neck," he said.
"He was with me, but now he is gone. And my life will never be the same again."
