FAMILY

– not so unusual, she says. When Zack was little he spent a lot of time in the garage with his grandfather, just tinkering around with stuff. He loved the outdoors – a love story that began before he could even walk.

And children – he always had a connection with them, whether it was with his cousins, nieces or nephews, or kids he went to school with.

His mother tells the story of a young Grade Primary student who would always save Zack a seat on the bus when they attended Meadowfields Community School.

“When they got to school he would walk her to her class,” she says. “She waited for him every day. It was cute.”

And then there was a special needs boy in his school that Zack would also walk to class.

“He had a kind heart,” his mom says. “Especially with kids.”

Zack wasn’t a fan of thunder and lightning storms when he was a kid.

“If it woke us up we’d wait and listen. All of a sudden there would be a crack of thunder and you could hear these little feet running up the hall and he would crawl into bed with us,” his mom says, adding with a laugh, “after a while he got a little bit big. In Grade 4 or 5 it was kind of a tight squeeze.”

MAKING HIS MARK

Sports were also a big part of Zack’s life growing up. His stepdad Darren Fitzgerald talks about the first time they brought him to play golf.

“I was amazed at how he could hit a ball so hard,” he says.

Zack played hockey too, but it was baseball he excelled at. Fitzgerald pulls up a message on his phone that a baseball coach from Hantsport wrote about Zack after he went missing.

“Approximately seven years ago a baseball team I coached in Hantsport played Zack’s team that summer. In the first couple games I knew we had a problem on our hands,” the coach had written. Yes, Zack was that good. “Later that summer we hosted provincials. Zack had an unbelievable tournament . . . I had no idea it was possible for a kid that young to hit a baseball that far. It shocked everyone who saw it . . . It’s something I’ll never forget.”

The message makes Fitzgerald very emotional — so much so that he’s unable to read aloud the entire message himself.

Across the room, Zack’s mother is now in tears too.

Another description his family shares is about Zack being a hard worker. When he lived in Canning in the Annapolis Valley for a year, on the days he wasn’t working at Huntley’s Village Meat Market he would often still help out his boss by cutting her wood.

Back in Yarmouth, he worked at Dayton Red and White.

It’s his dedication to his job and his work ethic that alerted his family that something was wrong on Jan. 1. He didn’t show up work, which was completely out of character. He wouldn’t just not show up for a shift. By noon on Jan. 1 he still hadn’t contacted his employer, his family or his friends.

His family believed something was terribly wrong.

“I just knew,” his mother says.

THANKFUL FOR SUPPORT

These past four months have been very difficult for Zack’s family.

On the one hand, they’re extremely grateful for all of the support that has been shown. People have been desperate to find Zack. In the initial days an organized search involving the RCMP, and the Yarmouth, Clare and Barrington ground search and rescue teams took place.

But beyond that, countless people took to the woods, fields, yards, pits and ditches for weeks and months searching for signs of Zack. Now that the weather is getting nice again, people are once again asking: Where can we search?

In the ‘Bring Zack Lefave home’ Facebook group, which has over 10,000 members, people still post daily. A recent post reads: “Zack, just wanted to let you know we will never give up on you. Your family, your friends, total strangers miss you.”

Still, on the other hand there’s been many stories, rumours and hearsay circulating as to what may have happened to Zack. Those are difficult, his family says.

An active missing person’s investigation continues by the RCMP and Zack’s family urges anyone with information that could help in the investigation to contact the RCMP. The family says they’ve been told what is needed is that key piece of evidence that could help to solve this case.

Silence won’t bring them answers.

With each passing day, week and month there have been many mixed emotions. For Zack’s grandmother Helen Durkee, there is anger and frustration, coupled with sadness and heartbreak. Zack lived at her home at the time he went missing. She misses their morning rituals. She says if someone knows something they must speak up.

There is a cash reward in place. But she says more important than that, there is a family who needs answers – a mother who needs to know what happened to her son.

“Zack was a good kid,” his mother Lorna says. “Very kind and loving. He would give anything to anybody. He was starting to transition into a young adult. We kind of joked because he wanted a water cooler for Christmas.”

“Everybody misses his smile,” his stepdad says. “We sure miss him.”

The photographs around the room, meanwhile, are a constant reminder of his life.

Zack’s absence – a constant reminder of his family’s love for him.