An east-end elementary school has unveiled an art installation to honour the memories of two Toronto brothers who died last November.
Parents, students and community members gathered at William Burgess Elementary School in East York on Tuesday to unveil a sculpture dedicated to Grade 3 student Zain Abdille, 8, and his 13-year-old brother, Faris, who was a Grade 8 student at Westwood Middle School.
The brothers, along with their mother Zahra Mohamoud Abdille, were found dead inside their Thorncliffe Park apartment on Nov. 29, 2014. Their deaths are believed to be the result of a triple murder-suicide involving their father, who died on the same day his wife and sons’ bodies were discovered.
William Burgess school principal Jennifer Zurba said that after the family’s death, the school discovered that the brothers’ bikes were still locked to a fence.
“So we brought them in thinking … we would be able to use them for some kind of memorial,” Zurba said in a phone interview.
A memorial committee made up of teachers and more than a dozen of the boys’ friends decided to turn the bikes into an art installation.
Zurba said the bicycles featured prominently in Zain and Faris’s lives: They would leave their bicycles on school property during the week. When Faris would come to pick up Zain each day after school, the brothers would ride their bikes together until it was time to head home.
Enlisting the help of a local artist, the committee created the art sculpture by connecting the bicycles and adding symbolic items. Faris’s nickname was “Wheels,” so the installation is adorned with an image of a ferris wheel.
The bikes, which have been painted, also face each other and are joined by one front wheel. “The two boys, in their passing, have become one important spirit to us,” Zurba explained.
The other front wheel is now in the school garden, where students can go to spin it and reflect, Zurba said.
On Tuesday, hundreds were in attendance at William Burgess to unveil the art installation. At an assembly, several students shared memories of their friends, and paid tribute through song and dance.
Zurba said the days leading up to the memorial were emotionally charged for both students and teachers.
Last week, the memorial committee happened to hold their final meeting on what would have been Zain’s ninth birthday. When his friends realized, they spontaneously began to sing “Happy Birthday.”
Zurba said creating the installation has been cathartic for the boys’ grieving friends.
“For them to be a part of that art installation, and touching it and putting it together, has been such a tremendous source of healing for them,” Zurba said.
