CUTLERVILLE, Mich. — Monday night, community members held a vigil for Noah Alan Jordan, the one-year-old who's body was recovered in a creek close to his home, to remember the boy and mourn the loss.
"As a mother, I can't imagine losing my kids," says Ona Muhlenbeck, who helped organize the vigil with Emily Ferro.
"I was glad to see the whole community came," says Ferro. "There are so many people here to help us."
The two live near Noah's family, and helped join the search on Sunday.
They aren't surprised by the turnout.
"We're very close knit here in Cutlerville," says Ferro. "I'm glad to see that we really do care. When things happen here, tornadoes or whatever, we all come together."
Even though most of the crowd doesn't know the family, for them, it doesn't matter.
"Why does it have to be a family member for us to come out and support and mourn?" a speaker at the vigil asked. "We are family one way or another, we're related."
Which is why they plan to start a petition to have a fence installed around the creek Noah was found in.
"I've been here 60 years," says Ferro. "This creek has always given problems."
Because related or not, they realize a tragedy like this could happen to anyone's family.
"We love him," says Ferro. "We don't know him, but we love him."
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