Twenty years ago today

Twenty years ago today Canada's worst mass shooting occurred. 14 women died at the hand of a gunman whose violence was directly targeted against women at the Universite de Montreal’s Ecole polytechnique. You can read more about it here.
As a result, this day has been declared Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women.
With this post I want to remember 14 women, varying in age from 21 to 31 who did not choose to be martyrs, but had their lives cut short simply because they were women who ended up in harm's way.
Today they would have been from 41 to 51 years of age, in the prime of their lives, careers, and families.
These biographies are taken directly from a CBC story.
Geneviève Bergeron was a second-year scholarship student in mechanical engineering. She played the clarinet and sang in a professional choir. In her spare time she played basketball and swam.
Helene Colgan was in her final year of mechanical engineering and planned to do her master's degree. She had three job offers and was leaning toward accepting one from a company based near Toronto.
Nathalie Croteau was another graduating mechanical engineer. She planned to take a two-week vacation in Cancun, Mexico, with Colgan at the end of the month.
Barbara Daigneault was expecting to graduate at the end of the year. She was a teaching assistant for her father Pierre Daigneault, a mechanical engineering professor with the city's other French-language engineering school at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Anne-Marie Edward, a chemical engineering student, loved outdoor sports like skiing and diving, and was always surrounded by friends.
Maud Haviernick was a second-year student in metallurgical engineering, and a graduate in environmental design from the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz was a first-year nursing student. She arrived in Montreal from Poland with her husband in 1987.
Maryse Laganière was the only non-student killed. She worked in the engineering school's budget department. She had recently married.
Maryse Leclair was in fourth-year metallurgy, had a year to go before graduation and was one of the top students in the school. She acted in plays in junior college. She was the first victim whose name was known, and she was found by her father, Montreal police Lt. Pierre Leclair.
Anne-Marie Lemay was in fourth-year mechanical engineering.
Sonia Pelletier was the head of her class and the pride of St-Ulric, Que., her remote birthplace in the Gaspé Peninsula. She had five sisters and two brothers. She was killed the day before she was to graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering. She had a job interview lined up for the following week.
Michèle Richard was in second-year metallurgical engineering. She was presenting a paper with Haviernick when she was killed.
Annie St-Arneault was a mechanical engineering student from La Tuque, Que., a Laurentian pulp and paper town in the upper St-Maurice river valley. She lived in a small apartment in Montreal. She was killed as she sat listening to a presentation in her last class before graduation. She had a job interview with Alcan Aluminium scheduled for the following day. She had talked about eventually getting married to the man who had been her boyfriend since she was a teenager.
Annie Turcotte was in her first year and lived with her brother in a small apartment near the university. She was described as gentle and athletic, enjoying diving and swimming. She went into metallurgical engineering so she could one day help improve the environment.

Remember them today, and work and pray that it never happens again.
Saying anything more would take away from the point of this post.