The commissioner of a new memorial bench in Williams Lake hopes it will be a spot where people can reflect and share in empathy for their community.
The memorial bench is dedicated to Cheryl Folden, who passed away suddenly on January 8, 2024, from a suspected accidental overdose.
Stuart Westie, the commissioner of the memorial bench, provided a home for Folden for the seven and a half months before her passing. Westie says Folden had struggled with addictions all her life. However, Westie says that never stopped Cheryl from being a kind and loving person.
“She had every right to be mean, but she never was. How she could be such a light, after all the abuse she took— it’s unfathomable,” says Westie. “She was just such a good person, so many people thought she was wonderful. They all spoke highly of her.”
Before her death, Westie says that Cheryl was on the path of making a recovery while she lived with him.
Westie was able to tell stories of moments Cheryl rediscovered and lived her passions. She had begun to paint, exercising, but mainly, Cheryl was a writer. Westie says she used to carry a shopping bag full of writings she had done on old receipts, letter envelopes, “anything that wasn’t used and she could write on”. Her writings were of justice and fairness, of the injustices that she had lived through. But also of love and of kindness.
Some of Cheryl’s writing have been enscribed on plaques, and put along the memorial bench. On one side of the stone bench, Westie had a donations plaque made with QR codes that lead to the websites for organizations such as the Salvation Army, Canadian Mental Health Association, and the Women’s Contact Society.
“These people, if they had a chance, a real and honest chance, I think a lot of them could be rehabilitated,” says Westie.”But we just don’t go far enough.”
A small crowd attended the unveiling ceremony of Cheryl Folden’s memorial bench, called ‘Cheryl’s Bench, Empathy in Action’. City Councillor Sheila Boehm spoke on Cheryl’s story, saying it was an example of how communities need to look at alternative ways to bring in housing to meet the needs of every community member.
Cariboo–Chilcotin MLA Loerne Doerkson was in attendance at the ceremony. He said that he had not had the chance to meet Folden in life; however, the plaques and story told on the bench, through Folden’s writings, and talking with Stuart, Doerkson, better understand the loss of an “incredibly beautiful person” to the community.
“I think that there are challenges here that so many of us just do not fully understand, and that many of us have just never experienced,” Doerkson says. “I am grateful to Stuart for the education he shared with me. But also this incredible memorial that he has provided for Cheryl’s memory and for us all to remember her.”
The Cheryl Folden Memorial Bench can be found and peacefully sat upon at Herb Gardner Park.
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