WINNIPEG - The mother of a former Winnipeg girl who was killed in the elementary school shooting in Connecticut is commenting publicly about the death of her daughter for the first time.
Six-year-old Ana Marquez-Greene was one of twenty children and seven women killed when a gunman opened fire in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14.
Her mother, Nelba Marquez-Greene, has posted a message on Facebook under the headline "From a grieving mother on Christmas Day."
In the message, Marquez-Greene wrote that on the day Ana died she was wearing a white t-shirt with a purple peace sign on the front.
She said the last thing she remembers was giving her girl, who had beautiful caramel skin and a shock of curly brown hair, two hugs before she got on the school bus.
Marquez-Greene said no lock-down procedure in the world could have stopped someone with the kind of gunpower and ammunition carried by the shooter.
"I have a Christmas wish," she wrote.
"I want to live in a better America — one where our leaders are working collaboratively for the good of the people and the protection of children. Please! No more! Ya basta!."
She then pays tribute to her daughter.
"Sweet Ana, I know our healing as a family will come only from our heavenly Father. I know this is your best Christmas yet - at home with our Lord and Saviour. As your mom I just wish we could have had a few more to celebrate here on earth. You died so needlessly.
"For Christmas I bought you a Kindle Fire HD the night before you died. My Christmas promise to you now is to continue to love the Lord with all my heart, mind and strength and to do whatever I can to make sure more kids can be safe ... and to send out the message that "love wins". I still sleep with your special blanket, most nights in your bed."
Marguez-Greene then offers some advice to people reading her post.
"Hug your loved ones tight! Joyous Christmas Season and a Blessed New Year to all!"
The girl and her family had only recently moved back to Connecticut after living in Winnipeg for three years.
Her father Jimmy Greene, is a musician and professor who is well-known in Winnipeg's jazz community.
Hundreds of people came together in Winnipeg last Saturday to mourn Ana's loss by watching her funeral on a video feed that was shown at Grant Memorial Baptist Church.
