Lessons from losing my mother
Courtesy of the Maple Ridge News
Lessons from losing my mother
Editor, The News:
Three years my mom’s been missing now. There’s not much to say, everything’s been said.
I’ve
tried my best to help find out what happened, but I’m only a teenager so I
couldn’t do much. To me it seemed as if I was getting stereotyped, like I’m
a little kid and can’t do anything. I had some ideas that I thought were
great, but no one would listen or even help me with what I wanted to do. That
comes as a big disappointment to me.
More could have been done, but people are too involved
with themselves to help someone else. I think we should stop worrying about
ourselves, and start helping other people. We have to help each other out and
back each other up.
I believe my mom is in heaven. I pray every night that
she is there and that God would be with her, and tell her that I love her and
miss her a lot. I hope she looks on me sometime, to see how I’ve grown
mentally and emotionally. I hope she’s proud of me. I know she would be if she
was here.
I guess the only thing to do now is just move on with
our lives. I’ll have scars of the pain I went through my whole life, but the
best part was that I got through the hurt and learned to heal.
There’s probably a lesson in all of this: don’t
take things for granted. But that wasn’t the case for me. I had no control
over not seeing my mom; so don’t take things as valuable as someone you love
for granted. I say you should give your loved ones a hug and maybe a kiss every
day. You never know what might happen to them or yourself.
Make the most of what you’ve got. Pray for others who
need prayer in their lives, like me and my family, as well as the others in our
situation. And I’ll keep praying for you.
Debra Chartier
McBride, B.C.
Editor’s note: Debra is the 15-year-old daughter of Janet Henry, who
went missing from Vancouver’s downtown eastside in June of 1997 and who has
been the subject of several stories in this newspaper since then.
Debra’s auntie Sandra Gagnon of Maple Ridge
renewed her vow this week to keep searching. Henry has been listed as one of 31
women who disappeared from the downtown eastside in the past five years. An
information website has been established at www.missingpeople.net
and police continue to seek clues about the missing women.