Welcome to Angela's Page

Angela's Story

" Guess what Mom? " my 27-year-old daughter Angela said to me over the phone.

Before I had a chance to answer in a breath she carried on, " I had my haircut, went out for lunch and had pictures taken of me. " Now you can see what I look like with short, short hair." I could tell by Angela's enthusiasm she was tickled by the attention her social worker Eileen had shown her. Angela looked through the eyes of a child with the intellect of an eleven - twelve year old. She was mentally challenged with emotional problems.


Angela's Haircut

It was the first week of November 1998 and this was the second phone call I received from Angela. Christmas was not far off and as usual Angela reminded me to send her gifts early. It was her habit to call home often before Christmas. She loved to receive presents and I would send her parcels, cards and letters to the office of her social worker.

This phone call remains forever embedded in my mind. It was the last time I would ever hear my daughter's voice. She vanished under suspicious circumstances November 20, 1998.

Angela lived in the downtown eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia for almost eight years. She was steadfast in this small community of 10-square blocks. Angela did not live a transient lifestyle nor had the mental capabilities of beginning another life somewhere else by using another identity? She had a network of close friends that were like her family. Two of these people are the co managers of the Portland Hotel where Angela resided for a number of years. Mark Townsend and Liz Evans knew Angela well. The Portland Hotel was Angela's safe haven.


Portland Hotel

On November 20,1998 Angela attended a meeting at Oppenheimer Park located in the downtown eastside. Mark, Liz and Eileen were also present. There were over 700 people in this small park. The meeting was called " Out of Harm's Way ". It was a community conference with an international panel of speakers and media from different parts of the world. Angela was in her glory pretending to be the hostess of such a grand event. In her mind her life was one of fantasy and make believe. This was the perfect day for Angela. She wore a knee length prom style dress Eileen had bought for her. It was the color of pink icing sugar. Angela wore high heels that made her wobble and teeter when she walked. It's difficult to fathom this was the very last day Angela would ever been seen or heard from again.


Oppenheimer Park

Angela's Struggle

When I look back on our life we were a typical middle class family living in the suburbs in a split level home with a SUV, two children, one dog, a cat and a few goldfish. My husband and I grew up in this area and we had family and close friends nearby. Angela Rebecca Jardine was our oldest daughter born at the Sudbury General Hospital Jun 23, 1971 in Ontario. My pregnancy was normal and I worked right up until I had Angela at a janitorial company.

Angela was my first pregnancy and I decided to have her by natural childbirth. The delivery was very quick and went without any problems, or so I thought. The strange thing is I heard no crying, only sounds of silence. I recall the nurses rushing off with Angela from the delivery room with my family doctor close behind. The nurses assured me nothing was wrong and the baby was fine. She assured me it was slight congestion in the lungs that needed to be cleared out. Things were so very different back then. Husbands were not allowed in the delivery rooms, mothers weren't allowed to hold their own babies. To this day I feel something went terribly wrong with the delivery or possibly Angela did not receive enough air during those crucial moments of entering the world.

Angela began walking at around ten months old. Her hand eye co-ordination was not what it should have been for a one year old. Her speech development was slow and she didn't try to pronounce words until she was two years old. We had our second daughter Amber in 1974. When Angela was around three years old she began acting very strange. She had never been a good sleeper and would wonder around in the dark at all hours. She would get up in the middle of the night and I would often find her in the kitchen with our dog. Sometimes she would take her small chair and would climb onto to it and reach into the kitchen cupboards grabbing at dishes. She would slowly drop each cup or plate watching them break one at a time. We never knew what prompted these bizarre events.

By the time Angela was 4 or 5 years old her speech was still very slow and her words were unintelligible at times. Even then it was garbled words only I could understand. With the birth of our second daughter I noticed a dramatic difference between siblings. Amber was very alert as a baby; she crawled, walked early and was jabbering away before turning a year old. Angela often became frustrated because of her speech or her poor hand eye co-ordination. The outbursts of anger and frustration were becoming more frequent. I personally feel Angela didn't understand why she wasn't able to do the things her younger sister was able to accomplish and it made her very irritated.


Angela and Amber

Other children would make fun of Angela, which in turn would make her behavior worse. We began seeking assistance for Angela when she was five years old. We were passed from one doctor to another. When she began attending school Angela's moods grew worse and her outbursts became frequent throughout each day. I vividly remember an afternoon when I attended a parent/teacher meeting for Angela in kindergarten in regard to her progress. I had been gathering our coats and other paraphernalia from the cloakroom, when I overheard Angela's teacher telling another parent she would put Angela inside a closet when she misbehaved. It stopped me dead in my tracks. Many of the parents were laughing along with the teacher. One parent asked the teacher how was she able to cope each day with a kid like Angela. The teachers remark was callous and very hurtful. I looked down and Angela was standing beside me clutching the sleeve of my sweater listening to them mocking her. The sadness on her little face was heartbreaking. It was one of the few times in my life where I have been so angry that I felt totally speechless and had to choke back tears. I clasped Angela's hand and we bolted from the school. I couldn't comprehend the cruelty. If a teacher without any scruples conducted herself in such a manner to a child of five years old, I began wondering what else went on behind closed doors. This was just the beginning to many more horror stories in Angela's life.

We continued seeking help for Angela. She was not allowed to attend a regular school after grade two because of her outbursts that would disrupt classes. Our family physician referred Angela to the Algoma Sanatorium in Sudbury Ontario when she was 7 years old. She was evaluated, assessed, psychological and developmental tests were conducted. Her academic level for math, spelling and reading was at a grade 2 level.

Angela attended school at the Algoma center each day. She required a speech therapist as her words were still mumbled. We lived in a rural area outside of Sudbury, Ontario and Angela would ride on a small yellow bus each day to school. It was an hour-long trip each way but it didn't seem to bother Angela, who normally was very impatient to arrive at destination points. Her progression was quite good and she actually looked forward to attending classes at this special school.

Over the years Angela was a guinea pig for medications to control her behavior problems and outbursts. The pediatrician put her on Ritalin when she was eight years old. From there on it was an assortment of medications. Angela was put on Haldol and many other drugs to calm her. Angela hated taking medications and I hated watching my daughter become a walking zombie.

During the coal boom in 1982 our family relocated to Sparwood, British Columbia. This was the worst thing we could have done in regard to Angela. She had been used to a structured and controlled school environment and was abruptly thrust into a regular public school system that was overflowing with students. Resources for Angela's medical supervision and treatment were very bleak in British Columbia and Angela's behavior once again began to spiral downwards.

Angela was often ridiculed, humiliated and tormented by the other students in school.

We lived a block away from school and both our girls would walk home for lunch. One afternoon a group of boys grabbed hold of Angela and rubbed feces in her hair and face. The behavior of so many of the people had been so alien to us we may have well come from living on another planet. We had absolutely no success talking to the parents of these kids. If anything we were told she deserved what she got because of the way she acted. The more people tried to shove Angela down the more aggressive she became to stand up for herself. She became confident in her stride yet she was still a very vulnerable child.

When Angela was around ten years old we went to the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, Alberta for another assessment. After lengthy testing we were informed Angela was beyond their control for the Respite facility offered at the Calgary Hospital for Sick Children. We were in a cauldron of continuous frustrating circles seeking help, which no one would provide for Angela. For us as a family it was extremely difficult to be normal. The entire family would attend counseling sessions with a therapist on a weekly basis. As Angela grew older her temper tantrums developed into full-blown rages. I would always ask the specialists " what is to become of Angela when she is older"? I would never receive any answers by the professionals. We continued searching for help for Angela. Numerous psychologists, child behaviorists and family counselors saw her. These specialists often told us if they made a diagnosis and labeled Angela they would then be " stuck with her". On several occasions we would admit Angela to a childcare treatment center for children with special needs for respite care. After one week of trying to cope with Angela we would receive a call from them informing us she was beyond their capabilities. The respite care workers dwindled down to a weekend here and there and finally to a single afternoon.

By the time Angela was fifteen more testing was conducted. We were informed Angela's intellect would always be around a ten to eleven year old level and she may have personality disorders. They told us she was beyond the care of a family unit and for us to seriously consider placing Angela in an institute. Caring for Angela 24-7 exhausted me and I knew we couldn't continue on the way it was. Our family was breaking down yet we couldn't detach Angela so easily from our lives by placing her into such a facility.

In 1989 I suffered a life threatening illness and my doctors strongly advised if I wished to continue to live I had to decide to eliminate the constant stresses in my daily life or I would ultimately end up dead. I had no alternative and we had to make the heartbreaking decision of having Angela placed in a respite homecare facility in 1989 in Castlegar, British Columbia. Angela was eighteen years old by then and she was placed with Joyce a home care respite provider. Angela affectionately called Joyce her second Mom. We spoke often on the phone and Angela would come home to visit or we would travel and see her at Joyce's home. It appeared to be working out well. Angela was happy and comfortable with Joyce.


Angela At Joyce's home

After several months social services removed Angela from Joyce's residence. We were totally unaware social services decided to relocate Angela to another facility. This came as shock to all concerned. We were informed Angela was almost nineteen and by law allowed to make her own decisions. After considerable discussion it was agreed Angela would be allowed to live in this home with four caregivers working six-hour shifts to prevent them from burning out. This was a jail sentence to Angela; her freedom was taken away. The house was quite a distance from town and in the wilderness. Angela intensely disliked living this way. I personally feel Angela was at ground zero at this point. She refused to abide by any rules or restrictions and she wore down the caregivers. When a new social worker arrived on the scene he granted Angela permission to live entirely on her own without any supervision. The system failed Angela because they refused to heed opinions of colleagues and reports we had stating Angela would always need constant supervision and a controlled environment.

Late summer of 1990 Angela arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia. She met up with a fellow claiming he was entirely devoted to Angela. She was head over heels in love with him. Her father and I decided to go to Vancouver and bring Angela back home. Angela refused to listen to reasoning and would only agree to return if we allowed this person into our home to live. We knew this was one boundary that we wouldn't allow to be crossed. We later found out this man had been giving Angela hard drugs and selling her on the streets. Angela needed someone to teach her how to develop the skills of being street smart. It was impossible for her to have learned this on her own. She was a young child in a woman's body and had been taken advantage of by a parasite.


Angela Arrives in Vancouver 1990

Angela returned home several times after 1990 and thankfully without this person.

She tried living back home with us but she preferred it on her own. Twice we set her up in a small apartment a short distance from where we live. Each time we prayed it would be a success. The last time we had great hope Angela would stay. For some reason a few people just wouldn't leave her alone. They would harass and terrify her in the night by banging on windows, and doors screaming threats and obscenities at her. The last time Angela fled in the middle of the night on a greyhound bus with only the clothes on her back. She left everything behind. It was so ironic that she felt safer and accepted in the downtown eastside of Vancouver than in a small town environment.







Meet Angela

Angela Growing up

Angela & Family

Last Years

Angela's Memorial Page

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