An Ottawa woman and her parents are grappling with the grief of losing loves ones — and the complications of moving ahead in their own lives — after the devastating twin earthquakes that struck their home country of Venezuela late last month.
Maria De Sousa has lived in Ottawa for the last two years after fleeing Venezuela a decade ago. Her parents, Carlos and Neyda De Sousa, were visiting her in Canada when the quakes hit the coastal South American country on June 24.
The confirmed death toll in Venezuela is more than 3,500 people, though an unofficial tally of the missing tops 30,000 people.
Both quakes hit the area where Maria’s parents live and severely damaged their home.
Carlos’s mother — Maria’s grandmother — was among those who died in the disaster.
“That night was the worst for us,” Maria recalled of what she learned from her family overseas. “[My aunt] was crying and she said,
