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Mom of slain Oak Bay sisters calls for positivity on anniversary of their deaths

‘Focus on the girls’ brightness and light rather than the negativity’
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The mother of two Oak Bay sisters killed on Christmas Day in 2017 asks friends, family and the community during the holiday season to focus on the girls’ light rather than the darkness of their deaths. (Keri Coles/News staff)

As the anniversary of the Christmas killings of two Oak Bay sisters draws near, their mother asks friends, family and the community during the holiday season to focus on the girls’ light rather than the darkness of their deaths.

“In looking ahead to Christmas, I wanted to find a way to remember and celebrate Chloe and Aubrey and the joy and love they brought to all of us,” Sarah Cotton said in a release to Black Press Media.

A friend of Cotton’s suggested asking friends and family to sing This Little Light of Mine on or around Christmas Day.

The song was a favourite of the girls – especially the Raffi version.

Cotton loved the idea.

“I would much rather focus on the girls’ brightness and light rather than the negativity of it all this Christmas and I hope this will add a little positivity to everyone’s Christmas,” said Cotton.

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Cotton references Operation Respect’s use of the song to highlight the belief that there is a “little light” inside each of us that makes us special.

“Each person sharing his or her ‘light’ helps us to appreciate and respect the little light that is different in each of us and bonds us together in ‘common’ unity,” Operation Respect said on its website, using the song as part of its curriculum to advance the social and emotional growth of children.

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A scholarship in memory of Chloe and Aubrey has been set up through the Victoria Foundation to provide scholarships to children attending Christ Church Cathedral School. Making a donation in support of the Chloe and Aubrey Berry Scholarship Fund can be done by phone (250-381-5532), cheque, or online.

Chloe, 6, and Aubrey Berry, 4, were in the care of their father Andrew Berry at his apartment in Oak Bay on Christmas Day in 2017. The children were supposed to go home to their mother’s house on Christmas afternoon but didn’t arrive.

Oak Bay police found the bodies of the two girls in Berry’s apartment.

Berry is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of his two daughters.


 
keri.coles@blackpress.ca

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Sisters 4-year-old Aubrey Berry and 6-year-old Chloe Berry were found dead in their father’s apartment in Oak Bay on Christmas Day. Their father Andrew Berry is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in their deaths. (Submitted photo)