Pubdate: Tue, 15 May 2007 Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 Kamloops Daily News Contact: http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679 CALLOUS ACTS PUT TRUST AT STAKE A person who is susceptible to substance abuse can be forgiven for losing her way again when great tragedy strikes. What is less forgivable are callous acts that suggest the underlying character of the person is deeply flawed. The local community opened its hearts and wallets to Patricia Wallick, then known as Patricia Johnson, and her young family when their time of crisis struck in early 2006. Nina Johnson, 15, a healthy girl in January was bedridden by February with a serious heart defect. Her mother took leave from her job and travelled to Vancouver for the spring to be close to Nina while she underwent a heart transplant. The teenager, described as a bright light by her friends and teachers, died of complications in July. It was a terrible blow to her mother and siblings and to Kamloops as a whole. During her illness, community fundraising events went on non-stop as people raised money for the David Foster Foundation, which provides financial and emotional help to families of children needing organ transplants. Therefore, it was shocking earlier this year to discover that Wallick was facing drug-related and theft charges. Some people wondered whether their contributions had gone toward a drug habit. They did not. Others were sympathetic to Wallick's troubles and called upon critics to consider the trauma she had been through with the loss of her daughter. Drug addicts suffer their own kind of hell. They engage in behaviour they never would do as a sober person. A deep personal crisis will send them over the bend. But none of this excuses unconscionable actions. Wallick was supported in her time of need by the kind people of B.C.'s Heart Transplant Home Society. She lived rent-free in a furnished apartment in Vancouver for three months so she could be near her daughter. She refused to leave until she was evicted and then stole $2,000 in furniture and household items as well as causing $1,000 worth of damage to the unit. The founder of the society, Ron Bayne, a transplant survivor himself, called it a lesson in life. "We take it that guests will be happy with the gift of life and be thankful," he said. For six years, that was the case. The society offered its services to grateful recipients to help them make it through a desperate time without financial worry. Just this one time, the kindness was returned with completely callous behaviour. The court has ordered Wallick to write a letter of apology to the society, but it will mean little if she does not realize the damage she did with her betrayal of trust. If she does express properly the regret we hope she feels, that might go a long way in restoring the society's faith in the people it helps. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek