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Mary Purdy baked homemade cupcakes, played the piano and lived for her two young boys.

Friends describe her as a leader in the Downtown Eastside, where she’s known by many as “Auntie Mary,” while her sister remembers her as a loving and generous spirit whose smile could light up a room.

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But on Jan. 17 Purdy died in her south Vancouver home — one of the latest victims of B.C.’s fentanyl crisis — leaving behind her two sons, a six-year-old and a four-year-old.

“It’s hard to look at the kids,” said her sister, Marie Purdy. “They have her eyes. They miss her fiercely. I keep telling them that she is in their hearts and that she is in the spirit world, and she is waiting for them.”

Marie said Purdy died Jan. 17 of a fentanyl overdose at home. Her two boys sat beside her lifeless body for hours until they were discovered by an ex-boyfriend, who had come to check on her.

“(The six-year-old) said that she fell over, and she wasn’t breathing, but he couldn’t find the phone to call 911, so he sat with her for hours,” said Marie, who choked back tears as she talked about her younger sibling.