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Linda Partridge can?t recall much about her mother and father, but she?s thankful she now has a place to honour their memory.
Wayne and Carnis Ann Partridge were among 109 victims who died on Air Canada Flight 621, Canada?s largest domestic air crash, 43 years ago.
Patridge was just six when she lost her parents.
On Sunday, she joined dozens of friends and relatives of the victims at a ceremony to officially open a memorial garden in their loved ones? honour.
?I can?t tell you about my parents, they didn?t live very long. I think I summed up all of my feelings when I said, ?Damn, thank you? because I truly am so grateful to have somewhere to come to now,? Partridge said after the dedication ceremony.
Flight 621 was scheduled to fly out of Montreal and stop off in Toronto before flying to Los Angeles on July 5, 1970. While entering position to land the plane, First Officer Donal Roland mistakenly deployed brake gear, causing the plane to drop. Both Roland and Capt. Peter Hamilton attempted to regain control of the plane, but were unsuccessful. All 100 passengers and nine crew members on board were killed.
Some family members said they had a sense of closure with opening of the memorial garden at the crash site near at McVean Dr. and Castlemore Rd.
?It feels like we?re at a funeral 43 years later, and for me, that is incredibly comforting,? Lynda Fishman, whose two sisters and mother died on the flight, said, standing in the garden.
Fishman authored a book on the events surrounding the crash of Flight 621, Repairing Rainbows, and said it took 40 years for all of the different families to get together and discover one another. She added, ?it?s always better late than never,? and said they?ve become a family of support for each other.
The idea to create a memorial came about three years ago when the various developers were looking into buying the land. They asked residents what they would like done with some of the land, and many requested a park or garden at the crash site. Seven developers behind the River?s Edge community financed the construction of the garden.
Before work on the memorial began, the crash site had been relatively untouched, with the exception of the initial clean up. Developers and family members said there had been incidences where passersby found bones belonging to victims.
Many of the families, including Fishman, blame Air Canada - which was owned by the federal government at the time of the crash - for not taking care of the site earlier, and being reluctant to talk about the incident since it occurred.
?It makes me sick to talk about Air Canada. They should have done this years ago, we should have had a a proper memorial with the grounds properly cleaned up years ago,? Fishman said.
Air Canada created a memorial to to victims at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in 1979.
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Source: http://www.winnipegsun.com/2013/07/07/brampton-memorial-garden-dedicated-to-air-canada-victims
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