Patience keeping mother’s memory alive

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This article was published 04/06/2017 (3040 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Matt Bushby will always cherish that day back in 2008 when his daughter Patience was born, and the special way his daughter got her unique name.

“When baby arrived, to our surprise she was a beautiful girl,” Matt Bushby said, adding he and his fiancée Claudette Osborne had been mistakenly told after an ultrasound they were expecting a boy.

With a boy’s name already picked out, Matt and Claudette realized they needed a name for a baby girl, and needed one quickly.

“Claudette was upset that we had no girl’s name and for some time she pestered me on what we were going to do, as family would be arriving soon,” Matt said.

“Finally, I said to Claudette ‘Patience Claudette,’ and Patience became her name.”

Patience Bushby will turn nine-years-old July 10, sadly, never got the chance to get to know her mom, as Claudette Osborne went missing at the age of 21 on July 25, 2008, about two weeks after Patience was born.

“It has been really hard, because I only have a dad to take care of me,” Patience said, while talking about the mother she never knew.

“It is really difficult not having my mom.”

Patience’s older brother Iziah Bushby is 10-years-old, and has also grown up with almost no memories of his mom, so he relies on stories and pictures to remember her.

He also said growing up without his mom has been a struggle.

“I don’t have a mom to look up to,” Iziah said. “It would be better to have two parents to help me, and to bring me along.”

Matt Bushby, his children Patience and Iziah, Claudette’s two older children 14-year-old Dayton and 11-year old Layla, and countless other family members and friends have spent almost nine years fighting to find out what happened to Claudette Osborne in the early morning hours of July 25, 2008.

“It’s nine years this July and the pain is still very much there,” Matt, who is now 51 years old said. “I still tear up if I’m asked to talk about her. The pain has not lessened, only I have learned to handle it so that I can be productive.

“You just learn to cope.”

Matt has raised Patience, Iziah and Layla since Claudette went missing.

“I promised Claudette early in our relationship that I would see them through life, so that her wish of them not going through what she had to go through would be kept.

“I take that promise very seriously, and do what needs to be done to insure I keep that promise.”

An RCMP spokesperson said in an email the investigation into the disappearance of Claudette Osborne is an active investigation where “foul play is suspected,” and “is part of Project Devote, an integrated unit that includes RCMP, Winnipeg Police Service and Manitoba Justice.”

“In the afternoon hours of July 24, 2008, Claudette Osborne was in the area of Selkirk Avenue and Charles Street. It was there that she made contact with a male and they went to the Lincoln Motor Hotel (now the Four Crowns Inn)on McPhillips Street in Winnipeg, checking in at approximately 11:00 p.m.,” the RCMP spokesperson said.

“In the early hours of July 25, Ms. Osborne left the Lincoln Motor Hotel, however, there has been no report of anyone seeing her after she left. She made several calls after leaving the hotel.”

Winnipeg Police have said previously they learned Claudette left the Lincoln Motor Hotel that morning and made her way to the area of Selkirk Avenue and King Street, saying she was in that area around 6:30 a.m.

Claudette’s older sister Bernadette Smith said her and family members have tried as much as possible to put together a timeline of what happened to Claudette on July 25, 2008.

According to Bernadette, Claudette was at the Lincoln Motor Hotel around 4:30 a.m. on July 25, 2008 and had been making phone calls around that time, including one call where she left a “disturbing message” for her sister Tina.

“Around 4:30 in the morning she left a disturbing message with Tina that a long-distance trucker with plates from Alberta was trying to push himself on her, and she was scared,” Bernadette said.

She said Claudette left the hotel, and made calls from a pay phone at the corner of Selkirk and King around 6:30 a.m.

Those phone calls are the last known trace of Claudette Osborne.

Bernadette said police confirmed to her the same trucker who Claudette was allegedly scared of that morning was eventually located in Calgary and questioned by police. He is currently not considered a suspect in Claudette’s disappearance.

A RCMP spokesperson would not confirm if a man from Calgary was questioned in the investigation stating, “this is an ongoing investigation, and such we are unable to discuss specific investigative steps, evidence and or suspects.”

Project Devote took over the investigation into Claudette Osborne’s disappearance on Jan. 12, 2012.

“Project Devote’s focus is investigating homicides of exploited and/or missing exploited persons where foul play is suspected. The major difference between a Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) investigation and a Project Devote investigation is that Project Devote is an integrated team made up of WPS and RCMP officers,” a RCMP spokesperson said.

“The team works together on every investigation, sharing and using resources as needed in the best interest of the investigation.

Bernadette said because of struggles and traumatizing incidents including sexual assault when she was growing up, Claudette had lived what she said was a hard life, and was often forced to make hard decisions.

But she was confident Claudette was in a place where she was going to turn things around and work towards a career.

“She wanted to help others,” Bernadette said. “She was in treatment and she wanted to get into social work.

“That’s probably what she would be doing now, helping others because the best helpers are those who have lived it, and she loved helping people.”

Bernadette has watched as Claudette’s kids have grown up motherless and struggled with the questions.

“They ask questions, they still wonder where their mom is, and wonder why she’s not home and they don’t understand why someone would take away their mom.”

She feels for Patience who never knew her mom, because she is starting to see a lot of Claudette in Patience.

“It’s really hard for girls to grow up without their mom, and Patience has her mom’s personality and she has her mom’s spunk,” she said. “She is so much like Claudette, they would have got along so well.”

Bernadette wants people to remember Claudette for her big personality, her sense of humour and the way she cared for others.

“Claudette was someone who loved life, she loved to laugh, she has this contagious laugh that you could not help but laugh with her, even if you didn’t know what the joke was.

“She had a contagious smile that lit up a room. She was just this beautiful girl who got along with absolutely everyone.”

According to Bernadette, it was Claudette’s sister Tina who made the first report to police about Claudette’s disappearance, but Bernadette admits family members got “frustrated” with what they thought was slow response from law enforcement in the days after Claudette was reported missing.

She said that is why they took it upon themselves to “do their own investigations,” but also to fight to bring awareness to Claudette and other Indigenous women and girls who have gone missing or been murdered.

“Those who have fought to find out what happened to their loved ones are responsible for bringing the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls out into the forefront,” Bernadette said.

Sheila North Wilson, the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) grand chief has spent years getting to know the families of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Manitoba and across Canada.

She said “grassroots efforts” are the reason the issue has received so much attention in the last few years, and why an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls became an election issue in the 2015 federal election.

“It’s because of families like Claudette’s family that never ever gave up, and now they deserve answers and deserve justice,” North Wilson said.

“This doesn’t become a national election issue if it wasn’t for the people that were relentless doing the vigils, the marches and demanding this issue get attention.”

She said law enforcement, the media and the public should never take cases less seriously if a person is of a certain race, or has lived what some describe as a high-risk lifestyle.

“We have a situation where our women often live in poverty and everything is stacked against them, and these perpetrators take advantage of the vulnerability,” North Wilson said.

“People are quick to talk about risky lifestyles, but often don’t ask why they are living a risky lifestyle, but when there are no opportunities that’s when you get boxed in and you fight.

“They call it a risky lifestyle, but really it’s survival mode.”

Matt, Patience and Iziah celebrated what would have been Claudette’s 30th birthday May 15 by cooking Claudette’s favourite foods and baking a birthday cake, just as they do every year.

Matt said he will always work to keep Claudette’s memory alive, and show her kids the kind of mother she was, and would have been today.

He will also remember the good times he had with Claudette.

“She loved music and cruising around Winnipeg or on trips to Norway House. She loved her family, not just her own children, but her nieces and nephews were a big deal to her,” Matt said.

“She loved good food whether it was homemade or dining out. She loved looking at the stars and we often would go to Green Hill in Winnipeg to watch them.”

Matt now hopes Claudette’s kid one day get answers, and start to heal their wounds.

“The kids miss her. They are coping as best as they can, but it’s not an easy thing to deal with. There is no closure for them, so the wounds won’t heal.”

He said he believes there are people out there who have information about Claudette’s disappearance, and he still hopes they will one day come forward.

Patience will turn nine years old days before the anniversary of her mom going missing, and said she will always seek to find out what happened to her mother on July 25, 2008.

She has a simple message for anyone that could come forward and help the family get answers.

“Tell me where she is,” Patience said.

Anyone with information on the 2008 disappearance of Claudette Osborne is asked to call the Project Devote tipline at 1-888-673-3316 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (204-786-8477) in Winnipeg, or at 1-800-222-8477 for residents living outside of Winnipeg.

Dave Baxter is a freelance reporter, photographer and editor who writes about Manitoba crimes for the Sunday Special.

crimefilesmanitoba@gmail.com

Twitter:@davebbbaxter