Dredging Up A Painful Past: One Man's Opinion

By Ben Meisner

While society seeks either some remedies or preventive measures to come out of the inquest into the death of 4 year old Amanda Jean Simpson, the process has brought forth memories that are beyond comprehension, for the surviving sisters.

The oldest of the family of four girls, Ashley, was known back when she was 8 years old as the mother of the children.

She was the person who accepted responsibility for her three sisters to ensure that they ate, were bathed, and got off to school.

Testimony before the jury told of Ashley arriving at school with her sisters in tow, she the tallest, and then her sisters forming a line from the biggest to the smallest.

I will never be able to comprehend what this 8 year old girl must have gone through to bring her unconscious sister to the upstairs, knowing full well that the youngster was near death.

I was called to that house on Oak St to act as a go between after Amanda’s death and I still have a haunting memory of three little girls huddled under a set of stairs like rabbits trapped in a cage.  If that memory remains with me today, can you just imagine what memories are in the minds of those three young girls.

We may be looking for answers but in so doing have dredged up a past that no one should have to live through again.

I was pleased that Coroner Beth Larcombe took the time to meet with Ashley; I do hope that she was able to shed some light on this whole gut wrenching matter.

For Ashley and her remaining sisters, this exercise at the Court in Prince George does nothing but bring up the past, a past that no one should be forced to live through once, let alone twice.  The Inquest will do nothing to bring back their little sister and nothing to bring closure to the matter.

No matter who dropped the ball back in 1999 it was not these four children, three of whom must today watch the replay of the events, a replay that still raises more questions than answers.

Society may have a need to have this matter aired in public as perhaps a means of dispensing justice, once more. To the remaining sisters and the “little mum at 8”, who had to endure that night, justice abandoned them years ago.  All they seek is to be allowed to try and live a new life. God knows, although they are all still so very young, they have already lived a series of life times.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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