The sky turned bright for a moment as Helena-Rose Houldcroft opened a vial of holy water and sprinkled it, with a few good shakes, over a cedar branch before she paused to speak. “All water is holy,” the Anglican priest said, “but I refuse to get the hose out and hose you down.”The small, still crowd erupted in laughter. It was a rare moment of levity in an otherwise sombre, poignant hour Saturday afternoon on the front lawn of Karen Fraser and Ron Smith’s quiet Leaside home.Friends, neighbours, family and politicians gathered beneath the canopy of mature trees for a ceremony to help the couple bless, cleanse and renew the land where police found the remains of eight men linked to an investigation into landscaper Bruce McArthur. He is charged with eight counts of first-degree murder. For about a decade, McArthur stored his tools in the garage of Fraser and Smith’s Mallory Cres. home and, in exchange, tended their yard. He brought over planters that he kept on the property. The remains of his alleged victims were found in planters in the backyard, and in the ravine behind it.Houldcroft walked through the crowd shaking the cedar branch. Water landed on shirts and hands, some clutching daffodil bulbs that, now blessed, will be planted in the backyard where Houldcroft ventured briefly to sprinkle more holy water.Read more: Unsealed court documents provide glimpse into early stages of Bruce McArthur investigationOwners holding ‘ceremony of renewal’ at Mallory Cres. home linked to Bruce McArthurJudge says she ended judicial career for sake of Toronto missing persons reviewFraser told the crowd the daffodils were an idea that came to her when she was in her garden not too long ago, surrounded by the detritus of the police investigation, including bits of yellow tape.She recalled a poem in which the protagonist felt sad and lonely until he came across the yellow flower. “Lonely,” she said, repeating the word. & ...
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