ROTHENBURGER: Coroner’s report provides a chance to break down a stigma
(Image: CFJC Today)
WHEN YOUTH HOMELESSNESS advocate Katherine McParland died a year and a half ago, she was eulogized for her work raising awareness and funding for kids aging out of the foster care system.
She knew whereof she spoke, since she herself had been homeless for a time in her teens. She founded A Way Home Kamloops with the aim of creating safe housing for homeless youth, and she was a force in this city.
After the BC Coroner’s Service announced this week that she died from an accidental drug overdose, the tributes were renewed. There was no condemnation, no suggestion that she had brought it on herself, no unkind comments about people on drugs or complaints about what they cost the system. Well, almost none.
Instead, there was sympathy and overwhelming praise for what she had accomplished in turning her adversity into something tremendously positive. And that’s how it should be.
And yet, there’s been much negative reaction to the publishing of the coroner’s report.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Goodbye Katherine, though I never, knew you at all
The pain inside for all to see; the pain that caused your fall.
Let God hold your hand, let Him heal the broken life you gave
For kids who had nowhere to go, the ones you tried to save.
And it seems to me, you lived your life, like a candle in the dark,
That so many others wish they could in a world so stark;
Your beauty and compassion, and your tender way
Will always be remembered; will always with us stay.
Goodbye Katherine, though I never, knew you at all
Your grace has touched our lives today; in death you stand so tall.
Goodbye Katherine, from so many showing how our grief,
For someone taken far too young, renews our faint belief.
And it seems to me, you lived your life, like a candle in the dark,
That so many others wish they could in a world so stark;
Your beauty and compassion, and your tender way
Will always be remembered; will always with us stay.