This year, Karla Frey had a hard time finishing her usual ofrenda in her Boucherville, Que. home.
Two months ago, her five-year-old neighbour and his mother were killed in a car crash.
She remembers the little boy visiting her each year, asking questions about her ofrenda — the altar she’s been setting up annually for the past 15 years to honour loved ones who have passed.
Weighed down by the thought of a mother dying with her son, Frey powered through and finished setting the altar. She took out her picture frames, candles, a decorative version of a bread known as pan de muerto, papel picado, mezcal, tequila, and cempasúchil (Mexican marigolds), and got to work.
"I was thinking about how much my little neighbour loved life. He loved my ofrenda, and I made it a little bit for him, too – and his mom," confided Frey, looking at the photo of the two neighbours resting at the top of the altar, with a heart hovering over it.
This year, that curious five-year-old boy will be visiting her a
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