When Teagan Quinn’s friends decided to memorialize him, they opted for an unmistakably Flin Flonian method.
Quinn, a Flin Flon native, was just 19 when his life came to a tragic and accidental end this week.
High up on the rock ridge overlooking Sipple Hill and Third Avenue, many of Quinn’s friends gathered to paint a colourful mural in his honour.
“It’s just to remember him,” said Travis Fehr, one of the painters, after the mural was completed Wednesday afternoon.
“We all knew him very well. He’s one of our best friends.”
The mural, which reads TEAGAN QUINN below his birth and passing years of 1995-2014, stands out among the small, faded names and messages that surround it.
The friends chose the colours of blue, yellow and white, representing the Norman Northstars hockey team on which Quinn so passionately played.
Yellow stars surround his name, and his jersey number of 23 figures prominently.
Always remember
Fehr, who grew up with Quinn, said he will always remember the man friends affectionately knew as “Teags.”
“Teags is one of those guys when you first meet, he’ll always be in your heart and you’ll never forget him,” said Fehr. “I grew up with him, taught him how to shoot a slap shot in his garage with his brother. Words can’t explain how much we’re going to miss him.”
Other friends recalled Quinn’s perpetual smile and uncanny ability to make people laugh with his wit and antics.
Though the handsome, dark-haired Quinn was born and raised in Flin Flon, at the time of his passing he was living in Thompson, where he worked for a heating, ventilation and air conditioning company.
He developed connections in Thompson during his two seasons as a forward with the Northstars, a popular AAA Midget franchise based in that city.
A smiling Quinn appeared on The Norman Northstars Show, a cable access TV program, in 2013, cracking jokes and speaking enthusiastically about his hockey career.
“My favourite perk about being on the Northstars is getting together with a bunch of friends all over [the] Norman [region],” he told the interviewer.
Quinn, who graduated from Hapnot Collegiate last year, also said he enjoyed seeing different communities in Manitoba while on road trips.
