Peter Short knew he’d be saying goodbye to his beloved daughter, Kira, when he went to Canuck Place children’s hospice on Monday. He never imagined he’d have to file a police report within hours of her death.
The Maple Ridge father received a devastating update on his six year-old daughter’s condition on Friday: she had four months to live. But the next day, oncologists told him the tumour in Kira’s spine was worse than expected and she only had a few weeks.
“We thought we had more time,” said Kira’s mother, Rayanne. “We thought we were going to be able to make more memories with her and we never got to.”
The following day, they told him to gather the family because she’d be gone in a matter of hours. The end came early Tuesday morning.
"She was in a lot of pain and said ‘dad, I'm so tired, I want to go to sleep. Wake me up when we can go camping,’” Short told CTV News in an emotional phone interview.
“That was the last thing she said to me.”
Broken and exhausted from the emotional goodbye surrounded by family and friends, Short was stunned when he returned to his Jeep Grand Cherokee, parked right outside Canuck Place, to find the door open and the inside completely empty.
Some loose change, his wife’s purse and a boat motor were taken, along with an unopened package of air fresheners. What really hurt Short was the theft of some drawings and paintings Kira had made while getting bloodwork taken last week, as well as two rocks with the words “hope” and “miracle” engraved on them. A keepsake vial with sand and seashells hanging from the rearview mirror was also taken.
“I just don’t understand, these things aren’t worth anything to anyone but us,” Short said.
“The things that Kira did in her last days on this Earth are what mean the most to me and my family.”
Canuck Place tells CTV News break-ins like that are extremely rare outside the facility.
“Everyone is upset in the house because we understand what it’s like for these families. They are going through unimaginable circumstances, life-altering,” said Debbie Butt, a spokesperson for the hospice.
Canuck place is adding its voice to the chorus begging for the stolen items to be returned.
“We hope that those mementoes are returned,” Butt said.
The online community is also rallying around the Short family. Friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help support the family and donations have been pouring in. Social media users are also spreading word about the heartless theft in the hope that someone may have seen some of the precious mementos that are all the family will have left of a little girl taken too soon by a cruel disease.
A candlelight vigil for Kira is taking place at 8pm on Friday, August 25th at Memorial Peace Park in Maple Ridge. The Short family is also hosting a toy drive and fundraiser in September to help with funeral expenses. They plan to pass on surplus funds to another family struggling with pediatric cancer.
“We want to pay forward the generosity so many people showed us,” says Short.
