written by Little Sister, Tanisha

When I was growing up, my mom was in numerous abusive relationships. Because of this, we moved around a lot and never had a lot of money. When I met Janice, I was in grade three, and we were living in a second stage house for abuse victims. My mom tried her hardest, but she couldn't always be there for me emotionally. Also, we were a province away from my entire family and I had never made friends easily. Basically, I felt incredibly alone.

I was a little girl who had seen so much hurt but Janice took me on with open arms. From the moment I met her, she always made me feel loved, appreciated and smart. Six years later, looking back, I wonder where I would be without her. There were times that our weekly meetings were the only thing I looked forward to. She was never rich either but she tried to give me the most oppurtunities as possible. Even if my mom would try to pay her back for the various places she would take me, Janice would never accept. She just gave and gave for me and there is no way that I could ever pay her back for what she has given me . Because of her, I know that the world is not all full of bad. She was truly an angel in my life. The love that I have for her is overwhelming and just writing this has me in tears. I cannot even describe the amount of gratitude and love i have for her. Her creativity for the outings we had still awes me; we would raid second hand book stores, collect rocks and then paint them, visit Vancouver, play Scrabble, visit her family. She truly treated me like family: I have met her entire family and when I still lived in Chilliwack, I would go to their annual baking day.

Janice & I are no longer officially in the program but we email daily and are still just as close as we were three years ago. She even took me to Disneyland last year.  And you may be thinking that she is rich, spoiling me with all these excursions, but she is not. She is just that selfless, emotionally and physically.  She treats everyone just as good as she treats me. If I could, I would give her everything she had ever wanted just to make her know how much I love and appreciate her. Still, it wouldn't be payback for the unconditional love, support and experiences she gave me.

Everytime I talk to her, I learn something new but mostly I learn that someone just worked their way into your heart and never left. I can say with certainty that my first child will have her name as it's middle name. I know we will be sisters forever.

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