Friends mourn 'sunshine' shot down at Virginia Tech

Jocelyne Couture-Nowak's friends in Nova Scotia are trying to come to grips with how a loving, non-violent person could be killed in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

"She was just incredible," said Heather Parker, "and it's just not a way such a person should pass away."

Couture-Nowak, a French instructor, was among the 33 dead in Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech. Her husband Jerzy Nowak, a horticulture professor, was not hurt.

Originally from Montreal, Couture-Nowak moved toTruro andattended the Nova Scotia Teachers College. That's where she and Parker met.

Parker says she was struck immediately by how bright and passionate her new friend was about the French language and education. Along with another friend, they were instrumental in establishing a French school called the cole Acadienne de Truro in 1997.

'Always a smile'

It's the image of Jocelyne's face that is burned into Lloyd Mapplebeck's memory.

"She was always an outgoing person," said Mapplebeck, a family friend for nearly 20 years. "Always a smile on her face and I just keep seeing her."

Marie-Claude Rioux says it was very easy to like Couture-Nowak. The two taught school at the military base in Shearwater in the mid-1990s.

"Jocelyne was sunshine, really," said Rioux. "She was someone that you wanted to be around.

"Jocelyne was very passionate about everything she was doing, was a wonderful teacher but she was also a wonderful mother and, I mean, she was totally in love with her husband Jerzy."

The couple left for Virginia six years ago, when Nowak, who had taught at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC) for 17 years, accepted a position as a department head at Virginia Tech.

Wendy LeBlanc, alongtime friend, saysCouture-Nowakwas apprehensive about the move to the United States.

"She was very reticent, very concerned about the violence, the guns," said LeBlanc. "She was concerned for her children, for her family."

Flags at NSAC, where Couture-Nowak also taught,were lowered to half-mast inher honour.