Wolfville boy who died in flood was a ‘fiercely loyal and protective’ brother

A close family friend is sharing stories and memories of the 13-year-old Wolfville, N.S., boy who died in Nova Scotia’s flash floods last week.

Eli Young, who had just finished Grade 7, died July 11 when he was overpowered by strong waters in a ditch as the remnants of post-tropical storm Beryl swept through the western part of the province.

“Eli’s sudden death shocked everyone who knew him,” Sarah Furey wrote in a statement to CBC News on Tuesday.

“It’s very difficult to understand how someone so young could be taken from us so suddenly. But what we have, and will always have, is Eli’s spirit, a spirit that will be fixed in our memories forever.”

Furey said the boy’s first love was his family.

“He was fiercely loyal and protective of his little brother and three sisters. Even as a young child, he was already aware of his great blessings of abundance of family,” Furey said.

She said Eli described his mother as “the smartest person he knew” and said she was “the first person he would turn to, his true confidant.”

“He beamed with admiration and pride with every word spoken of his father.”

For his 13th birthday, Eli’s family travelled to Montreal. Furey said he returned home in “new clothes and his eyes sparkling with appreciation.”

Friends and shoes were a big part of his life, she said.

“When he wasn’t convincing his parents to buy him new shoes he was getting them to create beautiful storage and displays of the ones he already acquired.”

She said Eli once saved up to buy a best friend’s old white Nike sneakers that were a few sizes too big.

“When I saw them on his feet, I didn’t understand his choice. I said to him, ‘Eli, you love shoes, you have so many amazing pairs, but you spend your last dollars on these?’ He looked at me and said, ‘It’s about the memories, you don’t know where these have been.'”

Furey said Eli could be spotted around the streets of Wolfville on his scooter throwing up peace signs or riding his bicycle with no hands.

“[He was] always returning home with stories of the people he met and new plans he had,” she said.

Eli was a member of the Wolfville School boys basketball team and played point guard. Some of his friends organized a memorial tribute with painted rocks in Wolfville that hinted at his love for the game.

She said Eli easily connected to people and animals. She said he befriended a kitten and persuaded his mother to let him take it home.

‘If you knew Eli, you knew his charm’

“Eli named the cat Bob so he could tell everyone he had a bobcat,” Furey said.

“If you knew Eli, you knew his charm, his smile, and if you knew him long enough you had the distinct honour of feeling him radiant and like many of us, you can still feel that today,” she said.

Furey is raising money online to help the family celebrate Eli’s life and pay for funeral expenses. As of Tuesday at 2:45 p.m., $43,728 had been raised on a GoFundMe page.