A funeral home obituary describes 14-year-old Terri-Lynn Keddy, 14, as a lover of music who spent her free time singing and dancing, as well as helping out in the kitchen with her stepmother and sharing a laugh with her siblings.
“The bond they share will never be broken,” the obituary reads.
A celebration of Terri-Lynn’s life is scheduled for Saturday at a firehall near where she died when floodwaters swept the SUV she was in off the road on July 22. The obituary encouraged people to wear pink, purple, or rainbow-inspired clothing, in honour of Terri-Lynn’s favourite colours.
The death notice says the teen was a recent survivor of a serious illness and had hoped to find a career working with children when she was an adult.
“Terri-Lynn would not want tears of sorrow shed for her but to remember and celebrate the way she lived life every day,” the obituary reads.
Two vehicles were swept into a flooded hayfield in Brooklyn, N.S., when 250 millimetres of rain fell on parts of Nova Scotia during a storm last month. The other victims were Colton Sisco and Natalie Harnish, both six, and 52-year-old Nicholas Holland.
Terri-Lynn’s body was found last week along the shore in Advocate Harbour, N.S., on the Bay of Fundy, after being carried nearly 100 kilometres by the floodwaters and tides.
The obituary thanked those who participated in the search efforts: “There will never be enough that can be said to show appreciation for everything you have done and do every day.”
Police previously said about 65 or 70 emergency personnel searched daily for the four victims. The search for Terri-Lynn in Brooklyn was eventually called off due to unsafe conditions, as searchers encountered murky pockets of water up to three metres deep.
