CLOSURE OF SOME KIND?

I want to tell you about something interesting that happened lately. It’s about a girl that I loved and adored almost 15 years ago. What happened was….I think I’ll just let you read this first. Actual article from April 7th, 1995 in the Province newspaper in Vancouver,BC. The headline reads;

I think she’s dead now: Mom;

A Winnipeg woman fears her daughter is dead in Vancouver, after a chilling, wordless telephone call.

Cheryl Pelkey, 24, hasn’t been seen since last Friday afternoon, when she walked out of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre at 44 E. Cordova.

And just after noon on Saturday in Winnipeg, the phone rang at her mother Nancy Picard’s home.

“There were sounds like somebody choking on the other end of the phone,” Picard said yesterday. “Nobody talked, it was just a gurgle and a choking noise. There was a deep breath and then silence.”

“I think that was her final call. I’m worried. I think she’s dead now.”

Picard said her daughter, who usually phones two or three times a week, has divided her time between Winnipeg and Vancouver for the past year and a half.

Pelkey’s boyfriend Tim Barber reported her missing on Sunday to Vancouver police.

“I don’t want to think the worst, but at the same time, she doesn’t do this,” said Barber.

He said Pelkey returned from Winnipeg a month ago, and they were living at the New Backpackers Hostel at 347 W.Pender.

When Pelkey vanished last Friday, she had cashed her welfare cheque and had about $500 cash.

“She was going off to the women’s center to play bingo,” Barber said, adding that people at the center saw her leave.

Her clothes and possessions, including the teddy-bear collection she’s had since she was a child, are still in the two-room apartment they shared.

Pelkey was prone to occasional fits of anger, the after-effect of sexual abuse she suffered as a child, said Picard and Barber. Pelkey has been on her own since she was 13.

“She’s pretty quiet,” Barber said. “She doesn’t do drugs, she doesn’t smoke.”

She was last seen wearing a jean jacket and jeans, low-heeled black shoes, and a T-shirt and carrying a jean bag. She is five feet, four inches tall, 135 pounds, with short brown hair and brown eyes.

Police are investigating.

The reason I thought I would share this with you is because I finally saw her yesterday after 15 years of not knowing what happened.

It’s interesting that all she had to say was “ I guess things just didn’t work out” and walked away.

I feel as though OK maybe that’s the only closure I will get from this unusual part of my life. The truth of the matter is, I truly loved this woman and when this happened I became very addicted to the needle shortly after this incident. I was hooked on the needle for the next two years before I finally came to Calgary and stopped all needle use.

Its not like I am blaming her for my addiction, it was just something I thought I would share with you, my reader. I’m just relieved that I can now close the book on that chapter in my life and trust me I have many chapters. As you will find out when my book is finally ready.

That’s all for now and I look forward to writing more blogs soon, and I look forward to your comments.

Thanks for letting me share this,
Tim Barber