As caskets were carried out of the church in Repentigny, friends and family grappled with a myriad of emotions – grief, anger and the impossible question, why?
The bodies of Julie Lemieux, 35, and her partner Luc Gelinas, 54, were discovered a week and a half ago in their home in Terrebonne, Que.
The couple was allegedly murdered by Gelinas’ 22-year-old son, Guillaume, who is expected to appear next in court on March 6 in Joliette.
Guillaume’s friends have said that he struggled after returning from serving with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan for eight months in 2010 and 2011.
But, the couple’s funeral service on Saturday was not an event intended to dwell on a crime, but rather a time to celebrate the lives of two people and their love for one another.
Friends and family of the couple wished for the funeral service to remain as private as possible.
At the church, Lemieux and Gelinas’ caskets sat next to each other – a gesture the church's priest described as symbolic of their union, of an eternal wedding.
Eulogies remembered the two as a couple that loved having fun together, were always smiling and often traveling.
The priest did what he could to make sense of the tragedy, saying that sometimes things happen in life that are just part of our ultimate journey to heaven.
