Isla Marie Short, Deer Lake
April 28, 2014-Nov. 1, 2017
In my other life I lived in Deer Lake. The Short family were well known to me: Melvin and Maxine, the grandparents; Roger, the great-grand parent of little Isla; and two great-uncles, worked for me. We have remained friends ever since. Every time I visit the west coast I would drop in and visit some of them.
On Oct. 12, 2016, on my way to the funeral of my best friend in Pasadena, I dropped in to Deer Lake to see Melvin. On his desk was a picture of a little girl, and the words he said to me will be etched in my brain forever — words no one should ever have to say: “This is my granddaughter, Isla. Two years old and born with an incurable cancer, and is in the Janeway as we speak.” That statement hit me doubly hard. How can a child be born with cancer? Secondly, there have been seven members of my family with cancer, and three did not make it, so I know the pain of cancer.
On Sunday, Nov. 5th, I attended the celebration of her life. Although it was a very short life, she certainly made a big impact on a lot of people, and I hope it’s not all in vain.
When I told my daughter, Karen, she said, “How do you make sense of it all?” That’s a statement many people have made since Isla died. It’s like the song — we’ll understand it all by and by.
To the Canadian Cancer Society who finally acknowledged this year that one in two people will have cancer in their lifetime, there has to be more emphasis put on what is causing this plague that is sweeping the land (although a lot of us know); too many of our people of all ages, like little Isla, are paying the ultimate sacrifice.
While I was taking in the Remembrance Day celebration in Placentia on Nov. 11th, I saw two little girls playing and running around in the Legion Hall. Every time I looked at them I was reminded of little Isla and how precious children are.
To my other family, the Shorts of Deer Lake, and especially to Sarah and Mike, who did such a remarkable job with their tribute to their daughter — explaining to the rest of us how she lived and endured such pain in her short life but was still able to make her family and the people around her laugh with her unforgettable jokes — I can only say, God must have had a purpose for little Isla. She is playing in His garden in heaven. Her picture will be on my wall as long as I am alive, to remind me of an angel gone from us too soon, and I will shed a little tear now and then. And when I think I have it bad she will be smiling at me and reminding me someone always has it worse than me.
Goodbye sweet angel. Little Isla, you are finally at rest.
Capt. Wilfred Bartlett, retired
Green Bay South
