Community holds vigil in memory of Elijah Marsh
Posted Feb 21, 2015 12:36 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A community came together on Saturday to honour the memory of Elijah Marsh, the three-year-old boy who died Thursday after wandering out into the cold wearing only a diaper, boots and a T-shirt.
About 40 people, including Mayor John Tory, gathered at a snow-covered memorial set up at the Neptune Drive apartment where the toddler had been staying with his grandmother, near Bathurst Street and Highway 401.
“I’m the mayor of all the people of Toronto so in that sense they’re part of kind of an extended family,” Tory said. “I think I can be here … just to make sure this family knows that we’re all with them in their hour of need and hour of grief.”
People continued to arrive at the memorial to lay flowers, stuffed animals and light candles in memory of the boy, who was found on Thursday behind a nearby house, about six hours after he was seen on the apartment building’s surveillance footage.
Paramedics took the toddler to North York General Hospital in critical condition, but he was later pronounced dead.
An online campaign established to pay for the family’s funeral expenses had raised more than $150,000 as of 12:15 p.m. on Saturday.
A trust fund has been created by the Marsh family.
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