LEWISTON — Friends of Kimberly Dobbie gathered Monday night on the sidewalk where she was killed the day before, sharing their stories of the mother whose “smile is eternal.”

Dobbie’s friends Laura Kirkland and Kathy Cormier organized the candlelight vigil to honor and remember her. Other friends brought signs saying she was loved and missed, but not forgotten.

“She will always be remembered for her smile and the love of her children. She was taken way too soon in the most heinous of ways,” Cormier said.

Police have arrested Albert Flick, 76, and charged him with murder in Dobbie’s fatal stabbing in front of Rancourt’s Laundromat on Sunday morning.

“We can’t term this a domestic violence case, because they weren’t romantically involved, but this was stalking,” Cormier said. “We are heartbroken for what he’s done.”

Nina Parent had met Dobbie at Hope Haven Gospel Mission, where she and her sons had been living before a pending move to an apartment in Farmington.

“None of us ever thought the reason we wouldn’t see her again was because of this,” Kirkland said.

Cormier said that if Dobbie had a fault, it was that she was too nice, too polite, and too trusting.

“He kept saying if it weren’t for her boys they could do something. He kept trying to pursue something with her,” Parent said. “Police need to take it seriously when women say they fear for their life. A simple background check could have saved her life.”

“Her smile will be eternal; a big bright spot in all of our lives,” Cormier said. “She’s not a woman that will be forgotten.”