One year ago, Vancouver bore witness to one of the worst mass casualty events in the province’s history.

For many, both within the Filipino community and the city at large, life hasn’t been the same since the Lapu-Lapu Day attack.

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The community came together during a church service on Sunday, where members shared how the tragedy had affected them. 

“I cannot even sleep the whole night, I’m thinking about it, I can see those dead bodies, lying underneath the car,” said Johnny Sapalaran, member of the Philippine Eagles Club, a community service organization.

The tragedy of the Lapu-Lapu Day attack claimed 11 lives and injured more than 30 people, some critically.

There are precious few people across the city whose lives were not touched in some way by this catastrophic loss, but the Filipino community has borne the brunt of the trauma.

On its one-year anniversary, per their cultural tradition, they gathered to mark the end of their official mourning period.

“Babang Luksa is a tradition in the Philippines,” said Rudy Antonio, chairman of the Mabuhay House Society that works together with the provincial government on developing a Filipino community centre.

“This is after a year of mourning; it is time to bring down everything that we mourn so that we can move on, starting to move forward.”

 Even so, there’s a quiet understanding that the grief will carry on for years to come.

“But the mourning continues, for so many years, before that feeling can be let go,” Antonio added.

At a memorial mass in East Vancouver, the community remembered the lives lost while leaders from different levels of government agreed that more needs to be done to support the survivors and victims’ families.

“I think the resources are not sufficient to deal with all the various impacts of that day,” said NDP MP Don Davis.

“At the federal level, the provincial level, the municipal level, we still have to come together, meeting with the families and all who have been impacted and check in with them. There is a tendency to put those things in the past, I don’t think we can do that.”

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim also attended the service.

“Don’t necessarily think about the policies and procedures in place and why we can not do something, let’s think out of the box because at the end of the day, there are a lot of victims that are still dealing with a lot of trauma and they don’t get the support they need,” he said.

“A year has gone by, and it does not make it easier. When people look across the kitchen table or at work, and one of their friends is not there, you feel it.”

While the official mourning period has ended, the community’s need for support is far from over, echoed by the permanence of its loss.