ANOTHER BAD STORY (this one local)

This photo was taken inside the trailer.
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Disabled girl left alone with mom’s corpse for nine days: family
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`````This story took place in a town not far from where I live; a town which prides itself on the amount of churches it has and on being a caring community.

`````I have provided a link to the story, but here it is in brief. A woman, who was a known alcoholic and drug abuser died in her trailer. Her daughter, who had Down Syndrome, was left alone with her corpse for nine days. The poor girl, who another news source reported as being quite affected by the illness, did not realize that her mother had died. Instead, she tried to help her mother by giving her macaroni and cheese and her medication. These items were found strewn around her body. The girl had lost a huge amount of weight herself and was reportedly near death also.

`````The story, as troubling as it is, becomes more so when other facts come to light. Her two sons had gone to Social Services with their concerns about the fitness of their mother. They had reported her substance abuse and the condition of the home; that it resembled something out of an episode of Hoarders. The CBC reported that the brother removed the girl and was told by Social Services that they would investigate. He was then contacted and told that he had to return the girl to the mother, or else he would be charged with kidnapping.

`````What kind of professional, had the individual gotten off their butt, would have allowed a child to have stayed in a filthy home with a drug addicted parent when her own kids complained about her abilities? This reminds me of a case a few years back when a toddler was found crawling in a downtown dive hotel with a dead junkie mother. She had been dead for days and the child was tugging at her body amidst the needle strewn apartment. The scene had been so upsetting that veteran cops needed help to deal with it.

`````However, they have removed kids from foster homes because they've deemed the parents "too old". These were people who had taken in many kids in the past and the image of the two sisters crying was very upsetting. The couple was in great health and they had been willing to take both girls, rather then splitting up the siblings. They removed some children from one home because the parents had a pet snake. The list goes on.

`````I realize it's a difficult job, but this case needs to be looked at. Somebody really dropped the ball. I also hope the girl finds a new care-giver who understands Down syndrome. I know a girl with it, and thanks to the hard work that her mother has done, she is high functioning. In her case, the mother started working with her very early on, but I would hate to think that this poor girl is going to end up in some facility. Let's not let her down again.