CALGARY — The parents of a nine-year-old boy who fell to his death from the 28th floor of a Calgary apartment building say they are devastated by the loss.
Samale Lulseged and his wife, Chuchu Whiwot, say that little Samule Bete was their only child.
The family came to Canada in 2004 from Kenya in search of a better life for their son.
They describe him as a wonderful, happy boy with a great sense of humour.
Whiwot says that on Tuesday afternoon, Samule was on the balcony of their apartment suite reading a book.
She thinks he fell when he leaned over the railing, trying to follow the direction of her voice.
“I was calling from outside, ‘Sammy, Sammy,’ ” the grief-stricken mother explained.
“Maybe he thought I was downstairs. He was looking down and then he went. He went down.”
“So just like that, he’s gone,” Lulseged said. He had been joking on the phone with his son only a few hours before.
“He said, ‘Sammy speaking,’ and I said, ‘Who’s Sammy?’ ” recalled Lulseged, smiling through his tears.
“And he’s, like, ’Oh, Pa!’ And then we joked. “He said he loved me, I said I loved him.”
Police have ruled the fall as accidental.
Calgarians touched by the tragedy are leaving memorial tributes at the scene.
Meanwhile, the family is staying with friends, relying on their strength and support to help them cope.