Loved ones celebrate slain Calgary mom, daughter with dancing and poetry

Missing five-year-old Taliyah Marsman’s body was discovered on a rural property east of Calgary.
(Facebook photo)

CALGARY – Loved ones of a slain mother and daughter celebrated their lives with one of the pair’s favourite activities – dancing.

More than a thousand people attended the memorial service Thursday for Sara Baillie, 34, and her five-year-old daughter, Taliyah Marsman.

“I’m tired of mourning. I want an opportunity to celebrate, and this is it,” said Baillie’s uncle, Scott Hamilton.

With that, he and his son Justin pulled sunglasses out of their suit pockets, put them on and gave each other a high-five.

Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” started playing and the men started to dance. Guests stood and joined in.

“If there’s anything that Taliyah and Sara loved to do, it was dance,” said Hamilton, who said his family lovingly nicknamed the girl “T.”

Taliyah’s father, Colin Marsman, compiled a slide show with pictures of the curly-haired little girl mugging for the camera, playing in a park, colouring and dressed up for a dance recital.

At the front of the church sanctuary was a table with two urns, stuffed animals, flowers, a sequined red dance outfit and a soccer jersey.

Agatha Mardinger, Taliyah’s stepsister, said her life was changed the moment the two met.

“She was kind, smart, beautiful and full of light,” she said.

Taliyah’s cousin, Nina Cox, recited a poem that was written by the girl’s great uncle called “Message to Daddy.”

“Hold our love close and tight and I’ll promise to visit you in your dreams at night,” she read. “I didn’t mean to leave you so soon. Now I’m dancing with Grampy to our favourite tune.”

The church was regaled with stories of Baillie accidentally reversing a car into a closed garage door when she was a teenager, getting soaked in a car wash when she failed to roll up her windows and wearing a Christmas wreath as a party hat to cheer up a friend.

Tawny Poelzer, who met Baillie while working at Boston Pizza, said her friend had a way with people.

“I knew that between our craziness and ridiculous antics, we were building the foundation of a great friendship,” she said.

Poelzer said Taliyah was like Baillie’s “mini me” and recalled a time the girl made everyone laugh with her “scary roar.”

Baillie’s mother, Janet Fredette, spoke briefly to reporters before the service.

“We are, of course, overcome with grief by the unnecessary loss of two beautiful members of our family,” Fredette read from a family statement.

“Despite our grief we are also overwhelmed by the strength that this community has given us.”

“The Calgary Police Service, our friends and hundreds, if not thousands, of unknown community members have shown us how to be strong.”

“Thank you for your support Calgary, Alberta and Canada.”

Baillie was found dead in her northwest Calgary home on July 11, but Taliyah was not there and an Amber Alert was issued.

The little girl’s body was found days later in a rural area east of the city.

A Calgary man, Edward Downey, faces two counts of first-degree murder.

Police have said he knew both Baillie and Taliyah, but it’s not clear how.

Rev. Miriam Mollering, who presided over the service, said the night Taliyah was found, two rainbows appeared over the house where the girl and Baillie lived in a basement suite.

“In the scriptures, rainbows refer to the promise of God. it is a sign of God’s love, God’s faithfulness. It’s a symbol of hope that is reflected after a storm,” she said.

“The rainbow is a sign of a covenant of love, of forgiveness and acceptance He gives to us.”