Family and friends are joining to help a grieving family cope with the loss of three sisters in a farming accident near Withrow, Alta.
In a statement, the Bott family said it doesn’t regret raising their children on the family farm.
“We do not regret raising and involving our kids Catie, 13, Dara, 11, and Jana 11, on our farm. It was our life,” said the statement, read by RCMP sgt. Mike Numan.
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“Our kids died living life on the farm. It was a family farm.”
RCMP said the girls were in the back of the grain truck when they were buried under canola seed.
“The girls were with their parents and while the truck was being unloaded they somehow fell into the canola seed,” said Ivan Dijkstra, deputy fire chief with Clearwater Regional Fire Rescue Services.
Adults pulled out the girls, and emergency responders tried to resuscitate the girls for two hours until STARS air ambulance arrived. The 13-year-old and one of the 11-year-old twins died at the scene. The other sister died later at Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton.
In a news release, Alberta agriculture minister Oneil Carlier said: “My thoughts are with the family of the three girls who died in the Hamlet of Withrow and my heart aches for them today. As a father myself, I believe no parent should have to bear the loss of a child. I join Albertans in expressing grief and sympathy for the parents of these girls as they go through this unimaginable sorrow.”
