The life of the 13-year-old Coquitlam girl who was killed in a traffic accident last week will be remembered in a celebration of life on April 9 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Burnaby.
Deborah Seol, a Grade 8 student at Montgomery Middle School in Coquitlam, was to turn 14 the day of her memorial.
The girl's mother, Angel Seol, is used to helping people pre-plan for death. She works at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, the same funeral service organizing her daughter's memorial service.
“Part of Angel's job is helping families to plan ahead of time,” said co-worker Alice Tsung. ”But who would predict that it would happen to one of our own.”
The funeral service is covering the cost of Seol’s memorial. Instead of a dreary service, Tsung said they will be decorating the chapel and are asking those wishing to pay their respects to wear purple, the 13-year-old’s favourite colour. “We're expecting it's going to be a big service,” said Tsung.
But even with all the support, many are worried it’s not enough.
“We understand that in this horrible situation a single mom might not be able to work a while," said Tsung. “A lot of people… are asking, 'Is there any way that we can help the family?’"
On April 1, Tsung helped set up a Go Fund Me campaign to raise money for the single mother of four. In less than a day, the campaign raised over $8,000 of its $50,000 goal. The money raised will be used to help the family with “food, bills, tuition and other daily expenses,” reads the campaign page.
Seol was killed on March 25 when a collision at the corner of Mariner Way and Riverview Crescent sent a black BMW spinning into a pedestrian island where she was standing with four other children, including her siblings and cousins. Seol and a six-year-old boy were taken to hospital, but she later succumbed to her injuries, said RCMP.
Within a day of the accident, the pedestrian island had already been transformed into an impromptu memorial — bouquets of red and white roses, yellow chrysanthemums and daisies were piled against an electrical box.
Both strangers and those who knew the avid athlete had come to express their anguish and support.
“Do not need to know you to know a life lost too soon," reads one note.
“Our hearts ache with sadness for your loss,” reads another.
The electrical box is a collage of the young woman’s life. In a strip of pictures from a photo booth, she's seen goofing around with a girl who appears to be her sister.
In another photo, she is on lakeside dock, smiling with a group of people.
Yet another picture shows a baby in a white and pink hanbok — a traditional Korean outfit — hiding among mounds of dragon fruit, oranges, apples and watermelon (likely the 100th day celebration of life, an important landmark for any Korean infant).
In between it all, someone has adorned the box with a handful of life-size plastic butterflies.
Both the RCMP and the BC Coroners Service are investigating the accident.
