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13 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,O ctober 29,2020 insidehalton.com The site of the new Holy Family Cemetery © G oo gl e M ap s ANewCemetery forHaltonRegion Holy Family Cemetery is open to assist members of the Catholic community in Halton. Conveniently located at Lower Base Line and Bronte Road, the cemetery offers options for in-ground burial and above-ground niches for cremated remains. T h e R om a n C a t h o l i c E p i s c o p a l C o r p o r a t i o n o f t h e D i o c e s e o f H am i l t o n i n O n t a r i o www.thecatholiccemeteries.ca For more information, please call 1-800-661-5985. Keegan Sachiel Parkin- son came into the world on Canada Day, 1999, a healthy eight-pound, 10-ounce bun- dle, a second son for Sabri- na and Stephan, owners of The Beehive Hair Studio, a thriving salon in down- town Oakville. Five years earlier, the couple had moved from To- ronto, opened the salon, bought a house and settled into suburban life. "This was the most beautiful time in my life ... All I wanted to do was have a nice family, children," said Sabrina. "Our lives were our kids. When we had holidays, we went with our kids, not because I didn't have babysitter, but because we enjoyed being around them." Keegan was a painfully shy, very gentle child, said his mom. "He couldn't make eye contact; it was just too much for him." She recalls his early ele- mentary school days when Keegan couldn't face his class to deliver a speech un- til his sympathetic teacher asked everyone to turn around, and a Christmas concert when her son deft- ly shuffled away from his group and off the stage un- til a grown-up hand gently nudged him back from be- hind the curtain. "He was shy, but this kid was fearless." Photos show Keegan decked out in blue and white striped overalls, still a toddler in diapers, tiny fingers gripping the han- dlebars as he rode a scooter along the sidewalk. As a youngster, he would ride the ramps at Shell Park amid the teens, and he was a regular gymnast on the backyard trampoline. "We always were laugh- ing. We're a really tight family, with a good sense of humour, all of us," Sabrina said. "If you were to ask any teacher, or student or friend about what hap- pened to Keegan, they would be shocked, not be- cause it never happens to people, but because of the way he was; this kid was the least likely kid that you would imagine this hap- pening to. He was never confrontational; he just wasn't that way." As gently and joyfully as Keegan entered this world, he left it in a horrifying and tragic way 19 years later. On July 13, 2018, Sabrina made the final tuition pay- ment for the diesel me- chanic program at Mo- hawk College Keegan would be attending in the fall. She picked him up af- ter work from his summer job at a body shop. Later that night he left to meet friends. In the early hours of the following morning, three police officers showed up at the Parkinson's door with the devastating news that Keegan had been fatal- ly shot in a friend's home on Rebecca Street. In the end, it was deemed an accidental shooting; two underage suspects were charged with manslaughter, one was convicted. A distraught Sabrina spent several days sedated in hospital. She and her husband have since been diagnosed with post-trau- matic stress disorder. The salon was temporarily closed while the family des- perately tried to process their grief. "Every part of my life has been turned upside down. The grief and tur- moil my husband and I have endured over losing our son has devastated ev- ery aspect of our lives and relationship. Keegan's death overshadows every conversation we try to have. We are broken." Sabrina sat through ev- ery day of the lengthy trial, listened to the disturbing evidence, saw the grue- some photos. "I had to see that with my own two eyes. I'll never forget that, but I'm still OK that I went. I think it was important that I was there." In the last year and a half of his life, Keegan had "been going down that road"; hanging out with friends she knew existed, but didn't know, listening to gangster rap. During the court case, she heard ugly rumours in the community that her son was a gangster. "It was terrible. They don't even know my son, but that's not who he is. I'm not saying my kid's an an- gel. My son chose to do this. Anybody who knows him, knows that's not who he is, but that's what they want at that age; they want to be ac- cepted, they want to be cool. It is important that people know who my son was because he was not that." Today, the family's salon has reopened, but some longtime customers never returned, perhaps because they heard the gossip or maybe they didn't know what to say, said Sabrina. People have to stop judg- ing because it could be their child in the same situ- ation, she said. "I thought we had the perfect family, but it still happened. I have to learn from this instead of letting it destroy me and my fami- ly. You can't live with hate in your heart. If you don't forgive them, it doesn't hurt anybody else but yourself. I'm trying so hard to (forgive). Somehow and some way, I have to forgive and heal." She is resentful of the Young Offenders Act, which allowed her son's name to be tossed about in public, but not those of the suspects. "At some point there's got to be changes in the law." To lose a child is to lose a piece of yourself, said Sa- brina in her victim impact statement. "I'm going to miss every- thing I wanted for my son; it doesn't exist anymore. It's gone. It's wiped out. They can't steal the memo- ries, but they've stolen ev- erything for the future." Above all, she will miss the laughter and Keegan's gentleness, "just being around somebody who is so sweet and kind." "We laughed all the time. That was our lives." 'EVERY PART OF LIFE HAS BEEN TURNED UPSIDE DOWN' Parkinson family photo KATHY YANCHUS kyanchus@metroland.com NEWS MOTHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM SPEAKS OUT ABOUT LOSING HER KIND AND GENTLE SON Left: Keegan Parkinson. Right: Baby Keegan and mom Sabrina Torstar file photo