One of Stacia Keenan's favourite memories of her younger brother Garland Curtis is of a Christmas at Garland's home in Airdrie several years ago.
One of Stacia Keenan's favourite memories of her younger brother Garland Curtis is of a Christmas at Garland's home in Airdrie several years ago.
It was one of the first times she and her husband could bring their young sons Aidan and Owen down from Grande Prairie, where her family was living at that time, to visit their uncle.
Garland had chicken wings cooking one evening—a tradition that would continue for years afterwards, as he would always serve his nephews wings "until they couldn't move"— and Stacia's youngest brother was there too.
At one point, Garland came out of a room with two big floppy stuffed dogs from Ikea for the boys and before long, uncles and nephews were just sharing in the joy of each other's company, Stacia said from her current home in Blackville, N.B., where she and her brothers were raised.
"Later on that night they're all sitting on the couch together and I remember looking at it and smiling because, there were my two boys sitting with my two brothers all snuggled in together. My boys very much loved that."
Last January, after a long absence, one of the stuffed dogs reappeared in Aidan's arms and Stacia remembered asking her son why he had decided to bring the toy out again.
"He said 'I just felt like having it with me today.'"
That day was two days after Stacia had learned her brother, who had a deep love for his family, a passion for home renovations and remote-control aircraft and a dry sense of humour, had been found murdered in his Airdrie home.
On Jan. 8, 2014, the man who killed Garland a year ago pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.
During the hearing, an agreed statement of facts was shared in court.
One of the statements read to the court was that Garland, who was in a relationship with the man who killed him, Dustin Piper, had encouraged Piper to better himself by finding a stable job and taking responsibility for his finances.
Such a conversation, Stacia said, really summed up just how much Garland cared for people and pushed them to better themselves.
"That was the only statement I heard that sounded as if he was standing beside me talking. That was very much him."
It was roughly 10 years ago that Garland headed west from the small town in eastern New Brunswick he had grown up in to work as a human resources consultant in British Columbia and Alberta's oilpatch.
Along with his personal possessions, Garland brought with him the compassion he had shared with his community in Blackville and whenever he learned that someone from the region he had called home was moving west for work, Garland would go out of his way to greet them and welcome them.
"If he knew anybody was coming out, even if they were an acquaintance, he would offer them a place to stay," Stacia said.
Garland showed his "unconditional" love for his friends and coworkers by finding them jobs even when he had lost his own or by having an ice cream machine brought into the workplace for their enjoyment, she added.
When Stacia and her family were looking for a home when they returned to Blackville, Garland was there.
"When we moved back, we needed a place to stay and without even a thought he opened the door to this place."
And those who knew Garland loved him back.
When his wake was held in Blackville last January, Stacia said people lined up for two hours in the cold to say goodbye.
The show of love for Garland was just as strong at a memorial Stacia and her mother, May, attended in Airdrie in April for friends and colleagues who couldn't make the trip to New Brunswick.
People in Blackville rallied around Garland's family, Stacia added, as if they had lost one of their own children.
"It's a community that you really don't realize that when you go and you come back and something like this happens and you fall down and you fall down so bad you don't know if you're going to be able to get up again, you have a whole community trying to help you up with no thought to themselves because you're part of that community," she said.
And despite the pain Garland's family has experienced as a result of his death, Stacia said she and her parents hope the community will show the same support to the Piper family as they struggle with what's happened.
"I can remember my mother saying 'Oh my God, the other family… that poor family, what they will go through.'"
Stacia said she and her family are proud of Garland for his tireless love for them and others in his life and added she is thankful that so many people gave such a love right back to her brother.
"I am grateful that he existed in a place where he was accepted unconditionally and loved unconditionally and I think that's a big part of what pushed him forward in his life."
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