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A lifeline caught by those who care

City helps man take his murdered sister home

By: Melissa Martin

Posted: 04/29/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

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Renelle Bermudez Nonato was murdered in March. (RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

We first met through a lifeline thrown across the sea, a missive in the wake of a life taken far too soon.

His name was Louie Bermudez, and he lived in Brunei. His email landed in my inbox just before midnight one Sunday. It was the day after I stood outside a Maples apartment and watched police quietly carry two burgundy bundles into the back of a big, black van.

"Please kindly help us," Louie wrote, the first of many words that ached of loss. "She is my sister."

She was Renelle Bermudez Nonato, and she was 28 years old on the night of March 23 when her husband, Julito Nonato, took her life and then his own. A child was orphaned and two families were left reeling from the sudden and heartbreaking end. Just a few years earlier, Renelle had moved to Winnipeg from the Philippines to start a life with her husband. They barely had a chance to begin.

But there is something beautiful in the heart of all this sadness: When Louie Bermudez threw out his lifeline, Winnipeg turned out to help.

After my story about Louie's dream to return his sister's body to the Philippines ran in the Free Press, Point Douglas Coun. Mike Pagtakhan reached out to the family. His office helped set up a trust fund at Assiniboine Credit Union to cover the costs of taking Renelle home and to save money for the couple's son.

Others helped, too: The city's close-knit Filipino community banded together to help Louie get a visa to bring him to Winnipeg, where he met his young nephew for the first time and saw his sister for the last. Staff at Mosaic Funeral Home reached out to help guide him through the process of returning her body to the Philippines.

That was just the beginning. Renelle's friends and co-workers at UPS gathered to help him navigate the unfamiliar city. Folks from Couples for Christ reached out with love at his sister's viewing and helped with the million things that needed to be done in the wake of such a shocking loss. Officers with the Winnipeg Police Service met with him personally.

"All I can say is thank you so much to everyone for everything you've done," Louie said last week over a cup of Starbucks coffee, shivering just a little in the crisp Osborne Village breeze.

Despite the circumstances, he was smiling as he recalled being invited to use Pagtakhan's office as a de facto resource centre; grinning as he talked about how a city had reached out to help him finish the mission he started.

"It was very difficult for me to see my sister in that way," he said of Renelle's viewing. "But I will bring her home to our province. The people there are waiting for us. The waiting is almost over."

The next day, Renelle Nonato made her final journey home. "Even though the things happened, there's always a hope for us to move on," Louie said, hours before boarding his plane -- their plane -- for the Philippines. "It's a matter of understanding, it's a matter of forgiveness. All I wanted to do is bring my sister back home."

When there are no questions left that can be answered, no trials to be devoured or justice to be pronounced, these stories have a way of fading away. Some facts, though, leave scars that must not fade. Although the spousal homicide rates have been dropping for years, almost one in five people accused of homicide in Canada are accused of killing their spouse. The vast majority of the victims are women; indeed, about half of women who are murdered are killed by a current or former romantic partner.

Love, family and loyalty should never have to be a risk factor. And no more brothers or mothers or friends should ever have to throw lifelines across the sea.

But when the time comes that they must, at least Louie Bermudez's story shines a light on the kind of embrace they will receive.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 29, 2012 A3

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