Remembering James Trevett-Parr

James Trevett-Parr lived to make people laugh.

His energy was irrepressible and positive.

On May 31, 2005, Trevett-Parr was murdered by someone he considered his best friend, Niimke Stevens, out at the abandoned Lajambe Forest Products building on Highway 17A.

That's where members of his family, friends and neighbours gathered yesterday to remember him.

They stood around a new memorial cross (shown) marking the area in which his body was found.

They shared fond memories.

Teri-Lynn Parr - James' mother - talked about her son's love of knock-knock jokes.

Even if he ran out of knock-knock jokes, he'd make more up.

After James died, Jordon and Brock Hoover, close friends of the family, approached her asking whether they could have a book put in the casket with James.

It was a book of knock-knock jokes.

"James is buried with a book of knock-knock jokes so he'll never run out," Parr said to the people gathered by the cross yesterday.

She also talked about many of James' friends calling him 'Jukebox' because he loved to sing so much.

"All they had to do was give him a quarter and he'd sing a song," she said. "That was okay, though. He always had lunch money."

Later, Parr talked about the strain of losing James and her feelings about having the memorial cross in Garden River where he died.

James is buried in Bruce Mines, she said, and the graveyard is closed there in the winter.

Parr said it's very important to her to be able to see and be near some symbol or marker to feel like she can somehow stay closer to her son and now she will be able to do that so much more easily.

Sonia Leblanc, a cousin to James, said he was as close to her as a brother and sometimes she felt like he was the only one she could really rely on.

Leblanc said that James used to make her laugh and smile a lot and now she finds that difficult without him.

The only thing Leblanc said can give her any peace is knowing Stevens is still in prison.

She believes he will hurt someone else when he is released.

Leblanc hopes no other family will have to go through the pain and suffering hers has endured, but she has little hope it can be avoided.

Since May, 2005, the Trevett-Parr family, including Teri-Lynn, Sheri-Lynn (his sister) and his twin brothers Jordon and Jesse have moved to a new home.

They just couldn't stand to live in the house they shared with James, especially with the memories of Stevens visiting him there.

Stevens pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of James Trevett-Parr in April 2006.

He's serving a life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 14 years for the brutal slaying of the young man he called a friend.