“I’m still here!!”Beverly Smith, who lost both her legs in the van rampage on Yonge St., wrote that defiant message in bold, blue chalk Tuesday morning at Olive Square park as people stopped to leave words of support on the one-year anniversary of the attack.“It’s just to remember, because I live right nearby and I just wanted to be here with my family,” said Smith, who was there with her son Michael and granddaughters Juliette and Maybelle.Smith, a retired librarian walking to the library that day to pick up a copy of The Handmaid’s Tale, said it’s been comforting to have support from the city.“Toronto’s become a community for us,” she said.Her son Michael, pushing her wheelchair while one of his daughters wrote “we love Bevy” in chalk nearby, said their lives have “changed dramatically.”“We’re a very close-knit family and as we just huddled together and got though it,” he said, adding they’re still dealing with their “new normal.”A series of events Tuesday is marking the one-year anniversary of the van attack, along the two-kilometre stretch of Yonge St. where it happened.At 1:30 p.m. a ceremony at the Mel Lastman Square amphitheatre will commemorate when the incident took place, and We Love Willowdale organizer Jesse James said they expect a couple thousand people.“I hope it’s somewhat cathartic and an opportunity for people to process grief and sorrow that’s being renewed,” he said.The community group is also organizing neighbourhood dinners, musicians on the street and an evening vigil at 6 p.m. at the square. Trauma care councillors and therapy dogs were available at both Mel Lastman Square and Olive Square to help people traumatized by the memory of the tragedy.Organizers left boxes of chalk on the west sidewalk of Yonge, hoping people will add to the messages throughout the day to help reclaim the street.&# ...
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