The mother of two young children who were allegedly slain by their father says she will hold the memories of their hugs and kisses close to her heart forever.
"I am lucky to have been chosen as your mother because you were exceptional," she wrote in a heartfelt obituary, which was published in a Montreal newspaper on Thursday.
In the message to Olivier Turcotte, 5, and his three-year-old sister Anne-Sophie, the woman said it's not always easy being a parent.
"I cried, I laughed, sometimes I wanted to quit," she said in her first public comments since last weekend's tragedy.
"I love you and I'm suffering because you're gone."
She says there will always be a place in her heart for the intensity of their personalities and the gentleness of their hugs and kisses.
"Wait for me in the afterlife because people who love each other know how to wait," the mother wrote.
A photo of the children accompanied the note, Olivier smiling broadly for the camera, his arm wrapped tightly around his little sister in a hug. Anne-Sophie, smiling shyly and looking off to the side, leans in to her older sibling.
Their mother says she can't understand how they could be taken from her so quickly and tragically
"Your lives have been stolen and your time with me was too short," the woman wrote. "I wonder why things like this happen."
The children were found dead by police in the family home in Piedmont, north of Montreal, on Saturday. Their father, cardiologist Guy Turcotte, was charged on Tuesday with their first-degree murder.
He is still in hospital recovering from what Quebec provincial police initially described as an overdose of medication. Police wouldn't comment on their investigation or Mr. Turcotte's condition on Thursday because the case is before the courts.
The killings stunned Piedmont, which is in the heart of Quebec's ski country north of Montreal, and made headlines across Canada.
The mother, who is separated from Mr. Turcotte, was away on a ski trip when the children were found.
The funeral for the children will be held Monday and their mother has asked that no flowers be sent because they will be discarded.
"My children deserve better," wrote the woman, who is an emergency room doctor.
"Use the money and spend some time with those close to you, help a cause in our world, give a coffee to a homeless person, be kind to an elderly person...."
The woman signed the message simply "Maman." Two x's, signifying kisses, accompanied the signature.
"Olivier, my champion, and Anne-Sophie, my big girl, take care of each other," she wrote in conclusion.