All she wants for Christmas is to heal at home

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Rita Koostachin's daughters Jayda (left), Chloe (centre) and Jaid-Lynn, seen here in 2009 with her husband Michael Wood, who died in October. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)

I don't know what, if anything, you've asked Santa for this year, but I've got something you probably never thought to put on your list.

A story to make you feel grateful for what you've got, never mind what you think you want.

I mean, if you didn't already feel that way after reading Tuesday's column.

That one concerned Martin, the West Broadway group home resident whose arrival Friday morning at Wannabees diner wearing a boot with no sole prompted a patron to go straight out and buy him a new pair.

That, of course, was a basic need, not a Christmas present.

Which brings us to today's story.

It starts, as it so often does at this time of year, with someone calling for help.

In this case it's Karen Ridd.

Karen was calling on behalf of a longtime friend named Rita Koostachin, who is in St. Boniface Hospital recovering from abdominal surgery, and the complications that have kept the 32-year-old university student and single mother away from her three young daughters for two weeks.

But that's just part of the pain she's endured.

The physical part, for the most part.

The guts of the emotional part are worse.

Last year, Koostachin's 26-year-old brother Gregory, who was staying in a shelter in Toronto, died from a prescription street drug overdose.

In May, she lost a daughter she named after him to a still birth.

In late August, another brother, Tim Koostachin, died after being beaten on the streets of Winnipeg. He was the city's 26th homicide victim.

And in October, her common-law husband, Michael Wood, came home from hospital after undergoing foot surgery, became ill, and died.

All in four days.

In all, Rita has lost eight relatives in two years, including the foster mother who raised her.

Karen was calling to tell me what she thought Rita needs when she goes home, hopefully for Christmas.

A bed.

The mattress and box spring she had, the one her husband was taken from when she called 911 that day before he died in hospital, has bad springs and even worse memories.

That last day she saw him alive she told Michael there would be a new bed when he got home.

But the family services agency that helps her still hasn't delivered.

That's why Karen was calling, so somehow someone might be able to provide a new bed for Rita that her daughters who miss her so much, and have been through so much, can cuddle up with their mother on when she finally gets home.

That's what Rita needs for Christmas, which isn't necessarily the same as what she wants.

So I phoned Rita in her room at the St. Boniface Hospital and after explaining that Karen had called me -- Rita didn't know -- I asked what she wanted for Christmas.

A bed, is what I expected her to say.

But that wasn't her answer.

"Healing," she said.

That's what she wants for Christmas. Healing from the agony of the surgery, but even more healing from the avalanche of death of loved ones that has all but buried her.

And, oh yes, when I asked again, she allowed that she and her girls need a new bed.

To make her landing a little softer when she gets home.

Karen Ridd believes that healing has already begun.

"Because," she said, "there's a sense of people caring for her."

And that was before Rita even met John Rademaker.

The one place I knew would find a way to help is the Vineyard Church. And the one person I knew I could call was its pastor, Rademaker.

Wednesday, the same day I phoned him, John visited Rita and told her she would have a bed when she got home.

Hopefully, by Friday.

The church is also providing Karen $150 so she can buy the food basics for Rita and her girls that will get them through the Christmas weekend.

And they're planning to give each of the girls, Jayda, 11, Jaid-Lynn, 7, and Chloe, 6, a doll for Christmas.

John said if anyone wants to donate to the kids, he will collect the offerings and deliver them by Christmas.

Chloe has already told her mom what she wants for Christmas, although not even Rademaker can deliver that.

"She doesn't want presents," Rita said. "All she wants for Christmas is to have me come home. And heal."

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 22, 2011 B1