VANCOUVER—Bright green leggings decorated with flowers weren’t a common sight at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick in the early 1990s.

That is, unless Lisa Kierstead was around.

On Kierstead, they marked the signature splash of colour she carried with her everywhere she went — matched by an ear-to-ear smile and an attitude that was as upbeat among new acquaintances as it was close friends.

Plus, on rainy fall days on the rugby field, while teammates shivered, Kierstead would be warm.

“She was just herself,” says Meghan Sanders, a teammate at the time. “Everybody knew who she was — she was very sincere. There was no agenda there.”

About three hours away in Wolfville, N.S., Heidi Burkholder was also playing rugby — in her case, on the Acadia University team — and planting the seeds for a love of sport she would carry throughout her life as a player and a coach.

Both having graduated in 1993, Kierstead and Burkholder would have met many times on the rugby pitch. The nearby university club teams competed regularly.

Later in life, the two women were called Lisa McCully and Heidi Stevenson.

And last weekend, both women’s lives were cut short when a gunman went on a rampage through rural Nova Scotia, killing at least 22 people. Stevenson, a veteran RCMP constable, was killed on duty.

Their sudden deaths are now recalling memories made more than two decades ago. Friends who knew them in those years are sharing photos and stories and planning reunions over Zoom in memory of the women, and realizing they share much more than a tragic end.

Sanders remembers being in her first-year dormitory, and feeling a bit intimidated by the tall, confident young woman with blond curly hair who seemed instantly at ease with everyone around her. But it took no time for them to become friends. They played rugby together, where Lisa soon gained a reputation for her confidence and free spirit — singing and dancing after games and generally making friends with everyone.

“She sincerely cared about everybody. You knew she was sincerely listening,” she said. “She was goofy, she loved to make people laugh.”

It’s a description that has held up over the years and matches how McCully is described by those who knew her more recently.

A generous, loving mother-of-two, a teacher and a woman with a love for the outdoors. That’s how Jenny Kierstead remembers her sister, Lisa.

“She was light in everyone’s life,” she says. “It’s heart-wrenching. We lost a tremendous spirit.”

A teacher at Debert Elementary School, McCully settled in Portapique five years ago with her two kids — and she immediately fell in love with the community and nature surrounding it. “It was a great set up for her — a two-minute walk to the beach and was very peaceful,” said Kierstead, who lives in Halifax.

McCully was an advocate of outdoor education, teaching her students about oceanography by the beach or taking the group on field trip to see nature. “Her goal was to enrich the lives of her kids, and she often said it was the main reason she was put on this earth.”

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Kierstead said that her sister’s vivacious spirit touched every corner of the community, including her own. “She introduced me to yoga, and I made it my life’s work,” says Kierstead, who founded Breathing Space Yoga Studio.

Sanders, who lost touch with Lisa after 1996, said she was not at all surprised to learn she had become a teacher.

“I thought: ‘Of course, that’s the perfect job; she’s so creative, fun and caring,’” Sanders said. “Those students were so lucky.”

Meanhwile, Stevenson, too, went on to mentor young people, in both her role as an RCMP officer, and as a rugby coach.

One of those young people was Carrie Campbell, who joined the girl’s rugby team in high school following a traumatic road accident.

“Heidi helped me through some of the toughest times of my high school years and stopped me from going down the wrong path,” Campbell wrote to the Star.

“I can remember going on team runs. She used to joke that she needed to work on her chase if she was going to keep me out of trouble.”

Campbell said that despite her role as a coach and RCMP liaison, Stevenson was one with the team of young women, who would tease her about her relationship with their teacher, Dean, whom she went on to marry.

“She knew I came from a huge family — and money was tight, with my parents each working multiple jobs,” Campbell wrote. “After I arrived to practice in soccer shorts, yet again, she discreetly changed into track pants and gave me the shorts right off her body so I had the proper equipment and fit in.”

Even after she left high school, Stevenson continued to check up on Campbell. She became a mentor, and a friend.

If the news of the Nova Scotia massacre victims was devastating, memories of their lives have been a balm to those who knew them.

Sanders was shocked to recognize her old friend among the faces of the victims of the Nova Scotia massacre. She took comfort when she went on social media to reconnect with her university teammates and share memories.

“That’s something Lisa was really good at doing was bringing people together,” Sanders said.

“It’s given me time to reflect on these truly wonderful friendships we had. This has definitely made me stop and appreciate not only what I had, but what I absolutely have every day.”

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