Quebec City benefit concert aids wounded family recover from mosque attack horror

It was one of those horrific events when Canadians will always remember where they were when they first heard the terrifying news–on a winter Sunday evening, January 29, 2017.

A lone gunman armed with a rifle and a pistol walked into the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City and opened fire, killing six worshippers and wounding 19 others, including Aymen Derbali.

As he moved toward the shooter, Derbali was shot seven times.

Two of the bullets lodged in his spinal cord, leaving him paralysed from the chest down, able to move only his head, arms and hands, confined to an electric wheelchair.

Canadians were shocked and a lot of them–as well as people around the world–have grappled and found ways to help Derbali, his wife, Nedra Zahousani, and the couple’s three children.

Another step was taken in that direction at the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Old Quebec on Sunday.

A benefit concert for the Derbali family was held and make no mistake: that concert was mainly due to the blood, sweat and tears of a Montreal-based free-lance viola player named Beatrice Madeleine Cadrin.

It was Cadrin, who organized the concert and conducted the makeshift orchestra of professional musicians who gathered at the cathedral.

Thanks of Cadrin and her volunteer orchestra, the Derbali family moved just a little bit closer to healing the wound suffered that night in January 2017, closer to moving out of the fourth-floor apartment it now occupies, getting out of the rehabiliation facility where Derbali currently lives, closer to something resembling–even a tiny bit–a regular family life.

I spoke by phone with Cadrin on Monday.

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