Hundreds attend funeral for canoe accident boys

Saturday 8 September 2012

The mother of two young boys killed in a canoe accident has said life without them is too hard to bear.

TRIBUTES: Joanne Beaton is supported as she leaves the funeral for her sons Ewan, five, and two-year-old Jamie, who died when a canoe they were in with their father and three family friends capsized on August 26. Main picture: PA

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Hilary Duncanson

Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of Ewen Beaton, five, and his brother Jamie, two, yesterday, after the tragedy in the West Highlands.

The boys died after the canoe they were in with their father and three family friends capsized on Loch Gairloch in Wester Ross on August 26.

They were rescued by helicopter but died that night in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness.The body of the boys' 32-year-old father, also named Ewen, has not been found. He is presumed drowned.Their friend Grace Mackay, five, was also pulled from the water but she too died last week in Glasgow's Yorkhill children's hospital.Grace's eight-year-old sister Callie, and their father Garry, 35, managed to swim the 500 metres to shore and raise the alarm.At the service in Inverness, a tribute from Ewen and Jamie's mother Joanne was read out by family friend Pauline Gault: "Please tell them both that I love them and I miss them so very much and that, because of them, so many lives have been touched."Tell them I know they are with me each and every day and that they know just what I can't find the words to say. "Tell them they will always be a part of me, and me a part of them."To express how much I love them, these words seem so few. I know you both are in the best of care but life without you two is too hard to bear."I want you to know mummy will try her best. And we'll meet again the day I am laid to rest."Can you ask them to place a special request from those of us left behind: for God to send strength so peace we can find and for extra help to get mummy through this pain, for my life without them will never be the same."I love you both with all my heart and we will be together again and, this time, we will never be apart."About 300 people packed into the service at Inverness Crematorium, conducted by the Rev Iain Macleay.He described Ewen and Jamie as "two wonderful happy boys, content, full of life and fun" and said they were like twins.He said: "They were always together, always best friends, always doing things together. If it was outdoors, then they did it. They loved doing it."Speaking of the family, he said: "They did so much together and we wish that they could have done so much more together. But hold on to these precious memories, all these things that were done in such a short time; precious, precious memories."Ewen had just started primary one at Teanassie primary school in Beauly, near Inverness, close to where the family lives.The Rev Macleay said that although Ewen's parents were worried about him starting school, he happily got on the bus with his friends on the first day."He was ready to go to school. He was ready to jump on the bus and have the company of his friends and he was ready because Jo and Ewen [his father] had made him ready," he said.Joanne and the rest of the family are grateful for the support received and thank the emergency services, local fishermen in Gairloch and the people of the town for being so understanding and helpful, the Rev Macleay said.He then led the mourners in prayer, which he said was "a prayer for Jo in the loss of her beautiful boys Ewen and Jamie, and for the continuing search for her husband and best friend".Before the service, mourners hugged and comforted each other outside, then a hearse carrying flower wreaths arrived at the building.The Beaton family say their focus is on finding Mr Beaton and bringing him home.The search for the boys' father has involved helicopters, lifeboats, police dogs and divers. Northern Constabulary has said it will keep looking for him for the foreseeable future.Grace, who had just started primary two at Tarradale primary school, was laid to rest on Wednesday in her home town of Muir of Ord, near Inverness.

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Hundreds attend funeral for canoe accident boys

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