Holding on to a memory: Son of N.S. mass shooting victim brings memento to public inquiry

What looks to be just an ordinary plaid lumber jacket, is actually one of the few mementos Ryan Farrington has from his step father, Frank Gulenchyn.

"He gave this to me when I came down one year because he bought a new one and it was getting a little raggedy, I didn't really dress for the weather properly," says Farrington.

Frank and Dawn Gulenchyn were among the 22 people killed in a gunman's rampage during Nova Scotia's April 2020 mass shooting.

The couple was killed in their home, which the perpetrator then set on fire in Portapique, N.S. They had settled into their retirement home there the year before.

"It's just something, one of the only thing I have to remember my stepfather by. I don't have anything else, everything was just lost in the fire," says Farrington.

He has worn the jacket almost every day since April. 18, 2020. In fact, it can be seen in multiple interviews he has done with CTV News.

The jacket came with him from Trenton, ON, to Halifax – as he attended public proceedings of the inquiry examining the tragedy.

"I definitely had to come down, it was an experience and I'm glad I did come down," he says.

Farrington says it's harder to be in Ontario, separated from other families. He adds some of the information he heard over the week have been hard to take it.

"The gaps between the timelines in the officers responses, it's a little bit unsettling, I'm not going to lie, it's unsettling," he says.

Other families have also voiced concerns about what they feel is being left out of the public presentations – and questions they still have.

Farrington says he has mixed feelings about the inquiry's work, and if it will lead to change.

"I really hope they do because I don’t want I really don't want anybody else to ever have to go through what any of our families have gone through in the past two years," says Farrington.

He says he plans to return to the proceedings when he can, and when he does, Frank's jacket will be with him.