Fiancé of Calgary woman killed in London terror attack recounts her final moments

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Moments before former Calgarian Christine Archibald was run down by terrorists on London Bridge, she said “I love you” and pulled her fiancé close for a passionate kiss.

The heart-wrenching story was told during the London Bridge Inquests, an inquiry by the U.K. coroner’s office, almost two years after the deadly terrorist attack in London that left eight dead and 48 seriously injured on June 3, 2017.

During the attack, three men drove a van into a crowd of pedestrians on the iconic London Bridge before they crashed the vehicle and ran to the nearby Borough Market area, where they stabbed people in several restaurants.

Archibald, affectionately known as Chrissy by friends and family, was visiting her fiancé, Tyler Ferguson, while he was on a work trip in England. He was supposed to return to the Netherlands on June 2, but had to prolong his stay and invited Christine to join him. After having dinner, the couple decided to walk across the bridge.

“Chrissy stopped me out of nowhere, grabbed me close and gave me a passionate kiss after telling me she loved me,” Ferguson said in a statement read on his behalf during the inquest, which began May 7. “I remember it being a warm summer’s evening and the sun had just gone down. Then the attack took place and Chrissy was killed.”

Archibald grew up in Castlegar, B.C., moving to Vancouver after high school and then to Calgary to attend Mount Royal University’s social work program. She met Ferguson, a friend of her sister Caroline’s soon-to-be husband, shortly after her move, but didn’t reconnect with him until her sister’s wedding in their hometown in 2016.

Ferguson was captivated with Archibald and the pair fell quickly in love.

“I couldn’t keep my eyes off Chrissy and can still picture her in the beautiful peach-coloured dress she wore that evening. As time progressed from that fateful night, we fell hard and fast for one another. The love we felt grew for one another every day,” he said.

However, just as their relationship was blooming, Ferguson moved to The Hague, Netherlands, for a two-year work contract.

The pair, inevitably, couldn’t bear being apart and Archibald moved there in February 2017. When she arrived, Ferguson proposed to her right away with a ring he had since Christmas. Their wedding was set for October 2018.

“I loved and still love Chrissy more than life itself. She was my angel,” he said. “She had a shy personality but was steadfast and strong in values that she believed in. She was compassionate, loyal and the most caring human being I have ever met.”

During the attack, Archibald’s engagement ring was lost, however it was later found and returned to Ferguson, who stills wears it on a gold chain around his neck, he told the inquest.

Archibald’s father, Greg, also shared stories of his compassionate 30-year-old daughter at the inquest.

She worked at Alpha House, an addictions shelter in Calgary, after graduating from Mount Royal. Greg, who described his daughter as “gentle,” said he worried the “difficult and heart-wrenching work” might be too much for her.

“She proved us wrong over and over again,” he told the inquest. “Chrissy believed from the bottom of her soul that each and every person is worthy of respect. She knew that imaginary line that separates any of us from homelessness, addiction or mental illness is easily erased by trauma, unfortunate circumstances or illness.”

“The world has many sunshine people in it. Their smiles warm us. They make life bright and cheerful,” her father said. “But Chrissy was not the sunshine. Chrissy was the moon. You might not notice the moon on a sunny day, but you need the moon when life is dark and it’s hard to find your way. That was our Chrissy: quiet and silvery but lighting a path for you to follow and reaching out a hand to help.”

Ferguson shared Greg’s thoughts: “I can still feel her presence in the moon and know that she is always watching over me.”