Members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Nova Scotia held a vigil in Dartmouth Saturday to remember and honour those affected by impaired driving tragedies.
MADD has held the ceremony for the last four years. Every ceremony, they add new names to the remembrance plaque.
This year, 12 more were added.
“It would seem we're going to be adding names for many years to come,” said Anissa Aldridge, president of the Halifax chapter of MADD.
There are an average of 22 impaired driving-related deaths in Nova Scotia every year. Families at the vigil say many are easily preventable.
“I get very angry, and we see it in our own community still,” said Brenda Keefe, who lost her daughter in an impaired driving incident. “I blame it all on ourselves for not doing what we're supposed to do, because if somebody would have reported him that night, I would still have my daughter.”
Jean Pendleton was in attendance. Her twin sister was killed by a drunk driver she knew.
“I was putting markers in a dish and I dropped them - I started to cry,” she said. “I said, ‘There’s something wrong. There’s something wrong with Joan.’”
Joan was only 11 years old and had been walking the family’s driveway in Little Dover, N.S., when she was killed by a drunk driver. Her family lit a candle in her memory at the vigil.
Everyone in the room shared a bond – one of loss and grief, but also of understanding.
“It’s a place you can come talk about it and say anything because they understand,” said Pendleton. “It’s OK to cry. I know it’s been 33 years, but it’s still there.”
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kelly Linehan.
