Family, friends remember popular teen

The family of Devin Allison is now left to try to pick up the pieces and do their best to find a way to carry on with their lives.
“It’s an adjustment, we are trying to get back into the swing of things,” said Allison’s aunt, Maureen Hanson. “It’s never going to be the same—it has left an awfully big hole in our lives.
“But for the most part, we’re doing pretty well and trying to get on.”
Hundreds attended a memorial service Friday afternoon at Bass Lake Park in Nestor Falls to remember the popular 17-year-old teen who died in a boating accident Aug. 7 near King Island on Lake of the Woods.
His body was recovered by the OPP’s Underwater Search and Recovery Unit two days later.
“It was just overwhelming, the support and the love,” said Hanson. “We were just overwhelmed with the people. We were anticipating about 300 people, it was probably two-and-a-half or three times that many.”
Many friends came with cards, flowers, and food for the family, she added.
Arnie Cohn officiated the service, and family and friends were given the opportunity to share their memories of Allison, who graduated from Fort Frances High School back in June and was planning to study history at the University of Manitoba this fall.
His mother, Donna Hanson, spoke words of comfort and concern for his friends—wanting them to know how much they meant to him.
“I just hope that his friends will remember him with love because that’s all he had for them. He enjoyed very much all the time he spent with them,” said Maureen Hanson.
Hanson said Don Mayhew, a history teacher at Fort High, spoke quite eloquently of his student and the kind of person he was. Cohn also read a message from family friend Scott Severinson while Hanson herself recited a poem she wrote for him.
In honour of Allison’s love of music and the guitar, his friend, Mark Kellar, played “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas at Friday’s service while friends Andrew Mueller, Adam Foley, Brian Vargas, and Allison Williams performed “Walk Away” by Ben Harper.
Hanson said the love and support shown by the community has made this difficult time much easier for the family, and encouraged people to look back on the teen’s life with joy.
“Remember him with a smile because that’s how he was,” she said. “Such a happy-go-lucky guy, [who] enjoyed life and the outdoors and all the time he spent with family and friends.”
It is thought the teen was on his way to pick up a friend to go fishing around 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 7 when his boat struck a deadhead, causing him to be thrown into the water.
He was not wearing a lifejacket at the time.
In memoriam donations may be made to The Devin Allison Memorial Bursary, for a graduating student from Fort Frances High School to provide further education in the field of history at a Canadian university, c/o Mr. Peter Allison, Box 99, Nestor Falls, Ont., P0X 1K0.