Grief counselling offered to grieving Blackville community

One-on-one grief counselling is being offered in Blackville, N.B., and the surrounding areas following a recent string of tragic deaths.

At a funeral service Thursday at St. Bridget's Church in Renous, hundreds of people said goodbye to 14-year-old Thomas Dunn, the second area teenager in the past two months to die in a road accident.

The service occurred less than 48 hours after the community lost a father and daughter.

Blaine Sturgeon, 55, and his 29-year-old daughter, Falon, died after their homemade raft overturned on the Miramichi River on Tuesday.

In May, 18-year-old Marshall Curtis of Gray Rapids was killed in a car crash, and Darren Brophy, a fellow 2017 graduate of Blackville School, died last fall.

The deaths prompted Horizon Health to set up grief counselling in the community.

"People can just walk in, from the community, anybody who is suffering, feeling they want to express something or get some grief off their chest," said counsellor Joey Godin.

Counsellors set up at the village office and the Blackville Health Centre on Thursday and will be there Friday.

Godin said the tragedies can have a large ripple effect in small, interconnected communities.

"For example, some people may know all these tragedies, some people may know a few, but it can trigger things, from a while back, of losses. Often people in smaller communities can feel affected by grief in different ways, too," he said.

"That they could feel isolated, or isolate themselves, so that's why we're trying to reach out in the community. So it's kind of gathering people where they're at."

Speaking with CBC News, community members said the deaths are felt throughout the area.

"Family means a lot here," said Monika Saulnier on Wednesday. "Like everybody knows everybody, so we all lend each other a hand. We support each other."

An interfaith candlelight vigil for July 16 is taking shape. Community organizers said it is a chance for those who want to mourn collectively and stand in solidarity with those who have lost loved ones.