A holiday celebration was cut short at an eastern Cape Breton home on Christmas Eve following a tragic accident along a beach.
James Dale Greer, 35, left his family home for a stroll along Mira Gut Beach on Thursday when he slipped on the rocks.
Greer’s uncle, Kirk MacNeil, said the walk was something he enjoyed, and has done many times in the past.
"He was doing what he loved to do so much,” said MacNeil in a Facebook post. “Walk the beach in Mira, enjoy the solitude, the moon on the water, the crash of the waves.”
“He slipped on the rocks, my heart is totally broken."
Greer’s mother, Diana MacKinnon, says he was taking a picture on the rocks when he lost his balance, slipping and breaking his neck.
MacKinnon says he died instantly.
"I sit here barely able to see out the window through my tears that I feel will never stop flowing," said MacKinnon.
Mackinnon reported Greer missing Thursday morning. After a short search by officers and a police dog, his body was found near breakwater.
In his obituary, Greer’s family says he was looking forward to watching the World Junior Hockey Championships with his stepfather, and had bought matching sweatshirts for the game hours before his death.
Greer was born in Glace Bay, but working in Toronto as a director at a recruiting company.
Sandy MacDonald-Kavanagh, another uncle of Greer, says he wishes he had more time with his nephew.
“Our schedules were busy, but I would probably find the time to look him up the next time I was in Toronto, or make time to see him next summer in Mira,” said MacDonald-Kavanagh.
“I thought I had time. But our time ran out."
MacKinnon says as a kid growing up in this area, Greer knew to stay off the breakwater.
"We all still did get adventurous and climbed them,” she said. “This is a result. We were all warned about and that the public continues to need to be reminded of.”
“Life is precious. Love, and be kind."
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.
