As they arrived at the hospital, the guards informed
fourteen year old Lydia that the handcuffs had to remain on
her wrists. An all to familiar, sickening feeling began to
swell up in her stomach. " Oh, no!" she gasped. "I can't face
my family with these on!" she pleaded with her
escorts as she lifted her restrained arms up into the air.
"Rules are rules," came the unwavering reply. No amount of
sympathy that the guards might have felt for her situation
could change the fact that she was in police custody. A few
hours earlier, the last remaining patriarch of her family had
passed away. Lydia's ninety-one year old great-grandmother's
sudden death, followed to closely in the wake of her
great-grandfather's passing only a few months earlier.
A compassionate appeal by Lydia's father had resulted in
permission for a temporary, escorted, leave of absent from
the local young offenders facility, where Lydia was being held by
consent until her court hearing in two weeks.
"Then just take me back to the jail," she whispered
as her head sunk down onto her chest. "I don't want to say
goodbye to my great-grandmother this way." In silence the
guards drove the vehicle around the corner, sympathetically
perceiving how the distraught child felt and respecting her
spoken wishes.
Victoria's funeral was scheduled for Easter Sunday. Fred,
her beloved husband of seventy-four years, had passed away a
mere season before. Victoria seemed to have lost
her will to live after Fred's death. Only last summer the petite,
ancient, great-grandmother of dozens, with her scarf covered
hair, hand knitted, thigh high socking's, and sparkling brown
eyes, had been down on her knees, stooping over a pile of
fresh, white fish as she scrapped, gutted and prepared the
fish for drying. This ancient band elder had continued to
prepare Indian medicines for her family and partake in the
rituals of everyday reservation life up to the end.
She especially loved to entertain her family with
traditional stories, spoken in her native Slavey tongue,
helping preserve the memorys of the lifestyle she and her ancestors
had cherished and lived by.
All that Victoria was had been taken by the sleep of death.
There was a gap in the family that no rising star could ever
hope to fulfill. Victoria was one of the last of her
generation. A special, hardy breed that had suffered enormous physical and emotional casuality's. Some managed to endure.
Surviving while many of their peers had persished, through mass epidemics and social changes that
immensely affected the native ways of life. Slowly all those
tribal elders were disappearing, each one passing on. Each
elder sadly taking his or her unique bits of perception,
history, wisdom and unrecorded Indian knowledge, as well as
much love and respect from their large extended families, with them.
Lydia was well aware of the impact her great-grandmothers
death would have on her relatives. She suffered deep anxiety
when she realized that she would be deprived of the emotional
support that comes from the fellowship of being surrounded by family at a time
when she needed their comfort the most. It was more then her
young mind was able to comprehend or tolerate.
Lydia was angry at the system that always seemed to be
watching every move she made. It had never occurred to her
that her own lack of respect for authority and laws created
the problems she seemed to continuously find herself emerged
in lately. She had always been sorry after she had been
arrested. Always adamantly agreeing to abide by her release
conditions. Yet she constantly breached those reasonable
stipulations. Again she had been caught stealing and found
herself in front of a judge, who had reasoned keeping her in
custody until her trial date would be saving her from any
additional charges she would doubtlessly pile on to her
already overloaded rap sheet. Most of the charges stemmed
from her poor attitude and lack of compliance to her
undertakings.
Back at young offenders she played the role of victim well.
The guards notified her father that she had suggested life
wasn't worth living. Her father had not accepted nor
understood why their lawyer and the judge had kept her
incarcerated. They said it was for her own sake. Yet her
father seemed unable to understand the reasons his daughter
was forced to remain a prisoner in light of these new
developments. He had never fully comprehended the logic
behind the courts action, or why the law demanded such strict
obedience from a child.
The next day Lydia's distraught father telephoned his
daughters lawyer who was unable to help as he was just about
to leave town for the holiday weekend. Next the determined
father contacted the court clerk. He was referred to a
Justice of the Peace who upon hearing the fathers reasoning,
agreed to hold a show cause hearing, if they could get an
order signed by the territorial judge that allowed her to be
taken out of custody and brought over to the courthouse. The
J.P would be willing to handle the hearing and overrule the
previous judges confinement order on the grounds of
compassion, if Lydia could prove to him why he should trust her.
After advising a surprised R.C.M.P officer of the pending
late evening hearing, it seemed all necessary wheels were in
motion. There was a delay as the territorial judge had just
flown back into the small, Northern town, and his whereabouts
was unknown.
The kindhearted Justice of the Peace volunteered to wait as
late as eleven o'clock that evening to conduct the show cause
hearing, if the judge could be located to sign the necessary papers.
Even the folks at the young offenders center were anxious to
assist by transporting Lydia to the courthouse upon receiving
the go ahead from the local R.C.M.P. detachment.
A misunderstood call from the R.C.M.P shortly before nine
o'clock resulted in a few tense moments as it appeared they
were trying to block the proceedings with technical delays.
That was not the case however, and when the judge finally was
located, he signed the necessary papers to have Lydia brought
to the courthouse and the R.C.M.P. wasted no time in
notifying the party's involved.
On the Easter holiday weekend, 9:30 pm on a Good Friday
evening, through no good merits of the accused, solely
through the kindness of the few legal persons involved, not
to forget the death of a beloved great-grandmother, and the
persistence of a dedicated and loving father, an impromptu
hearing was about to take place that would allow a confessed
offender of the law, to be set free until the day of her
trail, if only she would but Please, out of understanding for
the unmerited grace she was about to receive, abide by the
conditions of her new undertaking. A few simple, reasonable
requests under the circumstances. One that she not leave the
house unless escorted by her farther or stepmother, secondly,
to stay on the reservation except to attend her
great-grandmothers funeral service, and thirdly, primarily
to keep the peace and show up in court.
It was pointed out to Lydia's father by the Justice of the
Peace that it was his reputation that was on the line this
time. If Lydia failed to obey, not only would it be harder on
her at the time of her trail in eleven days from now, but
that the court would never be able to trust his word again.
The R.C.M.P. officer who represented the crown, had stated
peyer to the hearing, that he had never seen such a thing
happen before during all his lengthy time with the force. He
wasn't against it, just taken by surprise. It wasn't a common
practice for the justice system to overrule what was clearly
the deserved ruling of the court. If this kind of thing
happened often, it could undermine the authority and
seriousness of the laws that were in place to keep society
save from abusers.
Hopefully this young girl would begin to understand that the
law wasn't out to trap her. It's keepers had just shown
mercy towards her because of a family members death. All
they desired from her was an attitude change so she could
live peacefully without hurting herself or other people.
Perhaps the unusual and sad events that allowed her to be
free that evening, would compel her to understand the motives
of the court she had always considered her enemy.
Perhaps she would gain a new respect for the law by accepting
responsibly for her own actions. As well perhaps she would
finally realize the unnecessary pain she had caused herself
and her family because of her disregard for the laws true,
consequential purpose. Due to special circumstances, she
had been suddenly granted her freedom. Would she abide by
her new undertaking because of a renewed attitude change
grown out of appreciation? Only time and her actions will
tell if she truly was blessed by her gift of freedom that
came by way of her Easter weekend trial.
Two thousand years ago, on this same weekend, mankind was
granted an even greater freedom, that from death and the
bondage of sin. Through no merits of their own, strictly
because of the love of The Creator, and the sacrifice of an
innocent, perfect, man who took death in our place.
Would we living in the end times of this great planet, see
clearly enough through the dust storms stirred up by years of
corrupt, spiritual history, to appreciate and understand the
true significance of the freedom that God gave to us? Or
have we just taken that wonderful pardon and failed to comply
with our promised undertakings, that of allowing the Holy
Spirit to rehabilitate us into law abiding citizens fit to
take our place in a sinless universe. Are we careful to
handle our heavenly's fathers reputation with respect? Do we
strive with Gods help to give others a true picture of his
character and motives? Or do we just blame God for the
sufferings we create for ourselves due to the results of our
own lawless actions?
Only on that great day of our trial, will the final effects
of that grace be known. When Jesus comes to retrive those who
keep the faith of Jesus and understand what it means to keep
the commandments ( moral law) of God, out of respect.
The End
Linda Nixon
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