It is an unthinkable loss, but the family of a 12-year-old boy who was beaten to death with a baseball bat is doing its best to be strong.
Nadine Goosehead's eldest Albert was murdered over the weekend.
"Knowing that he's not going to be there, that's the hardest, going to bed waking up in the mornings," Nadine said.
It happened on the Bloodvein First Nation, but the family still does not have many concrete details of exactly what happened to their boy.
Albert was suppose to be visiting his grandmother Friday night, but went to another home instead.
Early Saturday morning Nadine was told her son had died of blunt-force trauma, apparently beaten to death with a bat.
An 18-year-old member of the community is charged with his murder.
"I didn't want to believe it at first, until people started coming to my home and then I knew," Nadine said.
Goosehead has seen her share of grief.
Her father was also murdered in the past.
She says she is angry, but already she is talking forgiveness for the accused.
"I have to, in order for myself to heal, I have to have that," she said.
People in Bloodvein have attempted to do something about the crime and violence in their community by starting a Citizen's on Patrol program.
Goosehead worries it is just too big of a problem to solve, and says it is the children who suffer in the end.
For now Albert's family is focusing on remembering him.
Stella Keller was his Aunt and school teacher, and remembers him as a boy who would act macho especially when there were girls around.
They are the kind of memories the family will share as they prepare for his funeral.
They are memories Nadine will tell her 10-day-old daughter who will never know her big brother.
18-year-old Tennessee Waylon Weedmark is charged with second-degree murder.
He appeared in a Winnipeg courtroom on Monday and was remanded into custody for a future court appearance.
With a report from CTV's Joe Olafson
