People pass by the memorial Sunday that was made for Harmony and Hope West at Elm Street School in Mechanic Falls. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal MECHANIC FALLS – Hundreds gathered at Elm Street School Sunday evening to mourn the deaths of two sisters, 11-year-old Harmony West and 6-year-old Hope West, found murdered a week ago in an apartment alongside the body of their mother. “They’ll live forever in our hearts,” said Cindy Cormier, who taught Hope for two years.
“They’re more than a news story to us,” said Principal Jessica Madsen. “They were super loved.” She said she’s always going to think of “happy times and beautiful faces” when she thinks of the pair.
Elm Street School principal, Jessica Madsen, left, and teacher Georgia Harlow attend Sunday’s vigil at the school in Mechanic Falls. Harlow was Harmony West’s teacher during West’s third and fourth grade school years. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal Lukas Lee, a rising sixth grader, said he would walk both girls home almost every day.
His friend Harmony, he said, was “always smiling, always happy.” The crowd gathered in front of the school, holding candles and holding hands, and looked at photographs of the girls as they remembered them, so full of life and promise. More than a few had tears in their eyes.
Their principal and teachers said the girls were a bright spot every day, arriving early and embracing every opportunity presented to them. Amy Jenkins, the assistant principal, said Hope and Harmony “lived up to their names.” Hope had a penchant for hugging, the educators said.
“Every day, you got a hug from Hope, whether you expected it or not,” Madsen said. With “these little glasses that always tilted to one side,” as Madsen put it, Hope always had “the biggest smile on her face” as she delivered “sneak attack hugs,” Cormier said. She loved pink and purple, dogs and Happy Meals.
A large crowd attends a vigil Sunday evening for Harmony and Hope West at Elm Street School in Mechanic Falls. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal “She was,” Cormier said, “a ray of sunshine.” Harmony, too, seemed a happy child but she also had something special, a sense of responsibility rare for someone so young.
“She was an old soul,” wise and “tuned in to everyone’s feelings,” said Georgia Harlow, who taught her for two years through fourth grade. “She loved to sing and wanted to be a singer when she grew up,” her teacher said. “She actually had a pretty good voice, too.
” “She liked to dance and express herself in creative ways. She was an artist and showed her love through her art. She’d make portraits, cards, illustrations for her classmates,” Harlow said.
One Christmas, Harmony sent every classmate a homemade card that included “really deep compliments” that recognized what made each of them special, Harlow said. “They were things like ‘I like how you care about others, or I like how you make the class laugh,’” Harlow recalled. “She complimented people’s character and noticed their strengths,” the teacher said.
“She made people feel seen.” Harmony also looked out for other students as well as her younger sister. “She was like a little mother hen,” Harlow said.
“She could always tell if something was wrong.” Harmony also loved animals, from elephants to her own cats and dogs, Harlow said. “She could love any animal though, really.
In fourth grade we researched animals and she chose snakes, so it wasn’t just cute and cuddly animals she loved. She loved all living things,” Harlow said. One of Harmony’s favorite sayings, repeated on cards and artwork the teacher saved, urged everybody to “Be You.
” She said Harmony, who never failed to look put together, “was always trying to better herself.” None of the educators could believe it when they first heard what happened to the two girls, who were found a week ago by police beside their mother, 37-year-old Jennifer Barney, who committed suicide. Police have yet to give a detailed outline of what they think occurred in the family’s second-floor apartment at 5 Highland Ave.
But one girl was found with multiple stab wounds and the other had “multiple injuries,” a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety said. The educators said they knew the little family had financial struggles, which they tried to help with by arranging for them to get Christmas presents, clothing and other assistance. But they had no inkling of anything horribly amiss.
They said Barney was an active parent who communicated with teachers and didn’t cause concern for anyone. Madsen said she’ll never forget when she heard the news of the girls’ deaths. Chris and Ashley Taylor attend Sunday’s vigil with their daughters, Amelia, left, and Winnie, second from right, at Elm Street School in Mechanic Falls.
Amelia, 7, and Winnie, 9, are students at Elm Street, the school where Harmony and Hope West attended school. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal) Daryn Slover/Sun Journal “I was just shocked,” she said. Cormier described herself as numb.
When they learned Friday about the stabbing and other injuries, they couldn’t believe it. “Never in a million years” could she have imagined such a thing, Madsen said. Yet they know they have a school full of children who are in pain, with questions that are not easily answered and fears that are not easily dismissed.
They’re preparing for it even as they deal with immediate crisis. “There will be a huge hole in our school for a long, long time,” Madsen said. Comments are not available on this story.
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