Residents of an apartment building at the corner of Queen and Duke in Hamilton, are having a hard time coming to terms with the loss of the family of five who died in Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlanes plane crash.

The family, originally from Kenya has lived in Hamilton since 2014.  34 year old Carolyn Karanja and her 60 year old mother Ann, as well as her three children, 7 year old Ryan, 4 year old Kelly and her youngest, 7 month old Rubi, were among the 157 killed when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 went down minutes after takeoff Sunday in Addis Ababa killing everyone on board.

The family was headed to Nairobi, so little Rubi could visit her grandfather for the first time.

Boris Kindeke lives across the hall from the family’s apartment and can not believe they are gone. Originally from the Democratic Repulbic of the Congo, Kindeke says he was helping the family get travel documents together, for the trip back home to Kenya.

“She came to me before, because she told me she booked the flight to go back home, because she didn’t finish her child’s passport, so she was asking me to help her fill it out and I did help her a little bit.” says Kindeke

Neighbours say the family had only been living in the building for about a year, but their kindness made a lasting impression.

According to another neighbour, they were always helping other people if they could.

The Kenyan community in Ontario says they are planning a vigil in the coming days for the family and all those who died in the devastating crash.