The mother of a fentanyl victim is pleading to have part of her son’s memorial returned after it was vandalized in Central Edmonton last week.
Jennifer Hussey lost her 18-year-old son Ryder last December after a friend gave him a pill laced with fentanyl. Hussey buried Ryder back home in Wales. The pair moved to Edmonton three years ago.
After her son died, Hussey decided to volunteer for the Youth Empowerment & Support Services’ (YESS) Urban Roots garden to support other youths while she grieved.
A pair of new friends working on the YESS project built a small memorial for Ryder in July. The space includes Ryder’s biggest passion: cars.
The space quickly became important to Hussey because it made her feel closer to her son in Edmonton.
“There was nowhere for me to really go to have space and time with him,” Hussey told CTV News. “I can’t lay flowers. I can’t go and talk to him. And even though I know he’s not here, it’s just really, really important to me.”
Just as Hussey starting to feel like she was moving on, last Friday, while doing landscaping work, her coworkers found broken glass, and the model vehicle was gone.
“I am just devastated that somebody could do that and take something that isn’t important to them, doesn’t mean anything to them, but it means everything to me,” Hussey said.
After everything she has been through in the past year, Hussey just wants the model car back to spend time with her son.
“Please just give me back Ryder’s car, you know, nobody can give me back Ryder but it’s just part of my baby,” Hussey said. “You’ve just taken me back so many steps backwards, when I thought that I was moving forward.”
With files from Angela Jung
