Christmas Fund: Since her son was stabbed, Jamie is 'just living day by day'

Jamie said until 2021, her life was like anybody else’s. She worked in a warehouse and co-parented her three children with her ex.

After her 14-year-old son was stabbed outside her apartment on Valentine’s Day in 2021, she said, her life hasn’t been the same.

“I didn’t get better,” she said.

She said the incident happened after her son dropped off his younger sister at home in Côte-St-Luc. As he was leaving through the corridor of the apartment building, he was stabbed four times.

“I had to save my son’s life,” Jamie said, her voice cracking, adding that “no one even knows what happened to him” or why he was stabbed in the first place.

At the time of the stabbing, police reported it happened when an argument between the boy and a man in his 40s escalated in the lobby of the apartment building.

Jamie hasn’t been able to work since due to PTSD and has been living on social assistance while supporting her three children — her 13-year-old daughter and two sons, now age 19 and 21 — as a single mom.

“I’m trying my best,” she said. “I’m still working at it; it’s very hard. I could not even wish that upon my worst enemy, because this is too painful.”

Shortly after the stabbing, Jamie moved out of the apartment building in Côte-St-Luc and now lives near Monk métro station. “I didn’t want to stay there,” she said.

These days, Jamie is looking for work, along with working on herself. She said she doesn’t really speak French, but it’s one of her goals. “I’m just living day by day.”

Jamie moved to Montreal from Saskatchewan 14 years ago. Montreal is home, she says, but sometimes she misses her roots and her life in the Prairies.

Growing up in Saskatchewan, she said she always looked forward to Christmas. “It was the music, the songs, the gifts, the happiness.”

She said she’s grateful to benefit from the Christmas Fund for the first time and, if she can cover the cost of food, she hoped to bring her three kids to an arcade.

“I want to be able to go to an arcade and enjoy ourselves. That’s how I look at it.”

lschertzer@postmedia.com

How to help

The person cited in this article is representative of those your donations will help. Because of resource limitations and privacy restrictions, The Gazette cannot accept non-monetary contributions. Donations to the Gazette Christmas Fund can be made online at christmasfund.com. Please direct all inquiries to christmasfundinquiries@postmedia.com.

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