Cecelia Zhang: Her angelic smile stays in our heart

张东岳：她天使般笑容不会从我们心中消失

今年是小张东岳去世10周年之祭奠。张东岳的邻居之一南茜写道，在默默祭奠她的短暂一生之际，小东岳的邻居们发掘了那曾将他们的邻里小区紧紧联系在一起的激情力量。

This year marks the ten year anniversary of the little girl Cecilia Zhang’s death. As her neighbours privately commemorate her short life today, Nancy Jin, Cecilia’s former neighbour wrote, they’ve discovered the profound inspirations that have tightly bonded their neighbourhood community.

Ten years ago last month, little Cecilia Zhang disappeared from her home and our leafy neighbourhood.  In a late fall morning, as leaves were dancing in the autumn wind, the news of her missing broke out, which sent a shockwave that captured many people, including those in our neighbourhood.

Like many neighbourhoods in Toronto, our neighbourhood was a little reflection of Canada’s diverse culture – the residents came from different countries, spoke different languages, and carried different traditions and backgrounds.

And unlike the neighbourhoods in China, where neighbours lived in such a close-knit community where personal lives were beyond the family boundaries, our neighbours kept a distance and had minimum contact with each other.

But that was totally changed by the little girl’s disappearance and her tragic death.

Immediately following her disappearance, the neighbourhood was covered in a dark and mysterious cloud, as the yellow police tape was set up, and media and the police cruisers frequently surrounded the street.

Apparently, many questions were in our mind as speculations and suspicions were swirling around – what had happened to her? Who did this? Where was she now? But above all, we all missed her sweet angelic smile, and we all shared a common belief– that she had been one of us, and that deserved to be with us continuously.

And that belief bonded us, and made us drop the bags carrying language and cultural barriers. The belief has inspired us, and helped us break out from the darkness and seek solace and comfort from each other.

Before the truth of her death was disclosed, our neighbourhood was covered in the widespread police investigation. As our home’s doors were repeatedly knocked by the police, we all voluntarily opened our home to their inspections that went from kitchens to bedrooms to washrooms to storage.

We patiently answered the questions from the police – did we see her in the days of or leading to her disappearance? Did we talk to her or find anything abnormal? Where were we on the night of her disappearance?  We received the police interviews, followed instructions to give fingerprints, and to go through polygraph tests.

Because we all believe that honestly revealing all the information to the police was the best way to help solve the case.

Our 81 year old Japanese neighbour, who was once called names by the Chinese residents in the neighbourhood -- due to her Japanese nationality, generously opened her wallet, making donations to Cecilia’s rescue fund.

Our neighbour from Hong Kong, who rarely spoke with Mandarin speakers, cleaned up the snow for her neighbouring Mandarin-speaking families during the winter storm.  

And the news of Cecilia’s death struck our neighbourhood hard. On the day when the news broke out, our Greek neighbour voluntarily offered to take care of young kids in the neighbourhood, and brought her home made food to those who were saddened by the news.

An Indian neighbour offered to buy groceries for those who were busy helping organize memorial events.

Several times, I was stopped by our Canadian neighbours on the street, anxiously asking if they could offer any help to the families and friends.

And that kindness and help had gone well beyond Cecilia’s immediate neighbourhood. A doctor in the area volunteered a home call to those who were in deep distress. Donations and supports were poured in from her school teachers, parents, church goers, and strangers.

If the overseas Chinese mentality can be described by a Chinese idiom -- “Save your breath to cool your porridge”, their attitude has been changed by the little girl Cecilia. In commemorating her short life, we have discovered the inspirations that had tightly bonded our neighbourhood community, while we refuse to let the sweet and angelic smile disappear from our heats.