Phoenix Blais grins while her mom Amanda tickles her belly, and gurgles gleefully when her dimpled cheeks are pinched.
Amanda puts a clean blanket on the carpet before laying the nine-month-old girl on it.
“Dust allergies,” she says, as she dangles a stripped doll above Phoenix, eliciting another giddy laugh from her .
Then Amanda marvels at how much her tiny, red-haired daughter has grown.
Nine months ago, Phoenix was born 11 weeks early, weighing merely two pounds.
“She fit in the palm of my hand,” says Amanda, 27.
The townhouse that Amanda shares with her mother Kim, son Griffin and daughter Phoenix is now filled with laughter, and littered with children’s toys.
Three years ago, Amanda would never have imagined she’s be a full-time mom – and a good one at that.
At 17, Amanda was introduced to crystal meth, a drug that held her tightly in its claws for nearly a decade.
She was one of the skeletal addicts who’d roam the streets of downtown Maple Ridge at night, peddling meth on a bicycle, tweaking and shouting obscenities at imaginary threats.
When she got pregnant with her son Griffin at 23, she quit the drug cold turkey, but turned to meth again after he was born because of untreated postpartum depression.
Griffin spent nine months in foster care as a result.
“I know it really affected him,” Amanda says.
She had been clean for a year when she gave birth to Phoenix.
Today, when Amanda gazes at her family, she thanks the Salvation Army. The Caring Place shelter in Maple Ridge accepted Amanda into its drug treatment program after Phoenix was born, and it’s where she remained for six months.
There, Amanda had all the support she needed to bid farewell to drugs, and the addicts she considered friends.
There, Amanda found herself and became a mom to Griffin. She finally felt comfortable to ask for help.
“I knew I was not going to get punished,” she says.
Without the help of the Sonia’s Cradle, a program that helps young families in need, Amanda would not be able to provide for Griffin and Phoenix.
Griffin, a rambunctious three-year-old who has memorized what every street sign means, has chronic eczema and needs medication that isn’t covered by PharmaCare.
Amanda gets $1,500 every month. By the time rent’s paid and groceries bought, there’s little left over for formula, diapers and clothing, which her kids seems to grow out in a matter of weeks.
She still visits the Caring Place and knows she can always find a listening ear and a helping hand there.
“I’d like Sonia’s Cradle to help more mothers,” says Amanda.
“If it wasn’t there, I’d probably be out there stealing food and stealing diapers.”
The spirit of the Sonia’s Cradle program sparked in 2009, when a new front‐line worker at The Caring Place began collecting donated items for babies and toddlers that had traditionally been turned away due to a lack of storage space.
Sonia Nickle took it upon herself to collect the furniture, clothing, diapers and formula that were coming in. She sorted and stored them in her garage, then distributed the items to families that she knew were in need.
Jessica Shaw, Nickle’s daughter, says her mom was always helping someone.
Sonia has just completed a diploma in counselling when she died suddenly from a brain aneurysm on Dec. 2, 2010, at the age of 50.
“My mom always had the biggest heart,” says Jessica.
“She always put us first and couldn’t care less about herself. If someone was walking down the street and it was cold, she’d give them the shirt off her back.”
Jessica and her siblings – Adam and Rory Nickle, and Robbie, Dave and Emily Macdonald– never realized how much of an impact their mom made on the world until after she died.
At her memorial service, people streamed to the microphone to tell the room how special Sonia was to them.
“My mom had a hard life, so she tried to make other people’s hard lives better,” says Jessica.
In Maple Ridge, 11.4 per cent of families and 17.6 per cent of children live in poverty. That’s more than 3,000 children struggling to have the proper food, shelter, clothing and basic necessities.
Sonia’s Cradle aims to support a small fraction of them.
Connie McGonigal, a client advocate at the Caring Place and a close friend of Sonia’s, remembers how the program grew from something Sonia did quietly in her spare time to a full-time ministry.
“When she died, her car port was full of diapers and strollers,” says Connie.
For Sonia, who at one time needed the same help, it was about giving back.
“I thought I knew everything she was doing and all the people she was helping, but I only knew the surface. There were so many people being helped by her.”
After Sonia passed away, people kept coming to the Caring Place to share how she had helped them.
That’s why it just seemed fitting to keep her legacy alive. The program has now grown from a service that provided diapers and formula to new moms to one that supports families and youth. Sonia’s Cradle now sponsors school lunches, a camp for at-risk youth and provides school supplies to needy families.
“You only had to meet Sonia once and she impacted your life,” says Connie.
“That’s how people felt. She always made you feel like the most special thing in the world.”
The Amazing Adventure
Race and explore Maple Ridge to raise awareness for the Salvation Army Caring Place Sonia’s Cradle camp program for at-risk youth.
When: June 9, 2012 at noon and ends at 6;30 p.m. with a BBQ.
Where: Starts and ends at Memorial Peace Park in Maple Ridge.
Costs: $150 for a team of four or $40 for individual entries.
• To register, call Amelia Norrie at 604-463-8295 ext. 106, email amelia.norrie@caringplace.ca or visit caringplace.ca.
Donate
• The Caring Place and Monkey Business Kids Boutique (11947 – 224th Street, Maple Ridge) are collecting unwanted diaper and formula coupons with a month expiry date or longer, to be put towards the purchase of needed items for this program. You can drop off your coupons or donations of diapers or baby formula at Monkey Business, Tuesday to Sunday.