REBECCA JOY YARMIE

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REBECCA JOY YARMIE December 21, 1971 - April 12, 2015 On April 12, 2015, at the age of 43-years, in the presence of family and in a comatose state, my daughter Rebecca passed into Eternity from the living room of our home. On April 17, 2015, Rebecca was buried at Glen Eden Cemetery. As a tribute to her eternal memory, one of Rebecca's junior high school teachers wrote glowingly of Rebecca saying, "I remember her to be a quiet, gentle person who always tried her best.... Above all, I still retain the positive memory of a delightful young person who graced my class." Rebecca was born with intellectual disabilities. As a timid, gentle, loving, and friendly soul, Rebecca was bullied in her workplaces. Because Rebecca was unable to defend herself verbally, she responded to these workplace abuses with multiple suicide attempts, ending up in psychiatry wards. Rebecca was brought down with urinary-infection-septic-shock which sent her into a comatose state that required emergency room intervention to save her life. Rebecca's septic shock near-death traumas caused brain damage, permanently reduced Rebecca's mental functions and abruptly and instantly changed her personality to the day of her death. Rebecca was no longer the same person whom we had known prior to her septic shock traumas. As Rebecca's family, we were shocked and helpless to cope with this dramatic and irreversible change in Rebecca. Today, my heart continues to bleed for my departed daughter. After sixteen months of drug-induced white blood cell depression, Rebecca succumbed to suddenly-appearing, simultaneously-appearing, massive, triple cancers of spindle cell sarcoma, uterine cancer and untreatable, stage-four, metastasized, terminal carcino-sarcoma of both ovaries. Rebecca's malignancies were atypical, never-before-seen, bizarre, cancerous configurations. On May 29, 2014, twenty-seven pounds of cancerous tissues were removed from Rebecca Yarmie's abdomen. Shocked by this cancerous lightning bolt from out-of-the-blue, Rebecca didn't have a chance or a hope of survival. We continue to grieve for the daughter we have lost. Taken by me several days before her death, photographs of an emaciated and comatose Rebecca are a daily reminder on full display in her former room. Since her death, I now sleep in Rebecca's bed, with Rebecca's protective, loyal and loving Border Collie, who continues to sleep under her bed. As Rebecca's father, my heart has been ripped right out of me. Every day I cry for my daughter.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jul 19, 2016