Sisters Jana Armstrong and Faith Isaacs were supposed to raise their children together. But just a few weeks ago, in the shock of grief, the young mothers made a pact. If one should die before her time, the other would raise her sister\u2019s son.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because Jana and I are quite well aware of how unexpected life can be,\u201d Faith says. \u201cAnd how short life can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agreement was struck around the time of the funeral for Faith\u2019s newborn daughter, Lehara, on 8 June in the regional Queensland<\/a> city of Toowoomba, where the sisters were born and raised.<\/p>\n It fell to Jana to plan the funeral of her baby niece, who died after her mother experienced birth complications. Because she and Faith were inseparable. Because it always fell to Jana.<\/p>\n The oldest daughter of four siblings, Jana was a maternal figure in her family even as a child.<\/p>\n Cerebral palsy paralysed her mum, Robyn. Her father, Ron, was deaf. Jana used to help Robyn and her wheelchair into the family\u2019s van. She was fluent in sign language.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the age of seven we were caring for our parents,\u201d Faith says. \u201cJana and I would both get in and bathe our mother, toilet her and help with all that kind of stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cAt seven, we had to start doing our own washing, packing our school lunches \u2013 we were very independent.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just dealt with whatever life threw at us from such a young age.\u201d<\/p>\n Jana, Faith says, always took the lead.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I was always just standing beside her just saying, \u2018Yep\u2019, just agreeing with everything that she said,\u201d Faith laughs.<\/p>\n After their parents died, the sisters were closer than ever. They would talk every day, visit every second. When Faith and her husband, Michael, traveled around Australia with their toddler, Thiago, last year, Jana joined them at the Birdsville races<\/a> and travelled to Uluru<\/a>. Family members joked that Jana was the third person in Faith\u2019s marriage.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were basically a package deal,\u201d says their cousin, Hannah Sweedman. \u201cThey did everything together\u201d.<\/p>\n At 30, Jana became a mother to a child of her own. Deshal was three months old when Jana spoke at Lehara\u2019s funeral, when the sisters made their pact.<\/p>\n Exactly four weeks after that day, one sister knew with terrible certainty that she would be forced to make good on that promise.<\/p>\n This time, it would not fall to Jana.<\/p>\n Last Wednesday, Jana\u2019s car was found abandoned in a street near her home, her young son inside their flat.<\/p>\n Her body was found in bushland northeast of Toowoomba three days later. Within hours of that first call from police saying she was missing, Faith knew Jana would not be coming home.<\/p>\n Because Jana would never have left her baby Deshal.<\/p>\n \u201cShe always wanted to be a mum, that was her dream,\u201d Faith later told reporters. <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cShe loved every day, every minute spending time with her son. She was never away from him.\u201d<\/p>\n She made the comments outside the Toowoomba magistrates court, where Deshal\u2019s biological father and Jana\u2019s former partner, Dharminder Singh, had appeared, charged with her murder<\/a>. His lawyer indicated that Singh would plead not guilty.<\/p>\n Looking back on the final time she saw Jana, the Tuesday that she was reported missing, Faith now recognises her sister was worried.<\/p>\n The two women were out for brunch \u2013 though it is hard to have a proper conversation eating out with a toddler and a baby, Faith says. Jana was kicking a soccer ball around with Thiago. She was on maternity leave from her job as a support worker, and due to return to work in two months.<\/p>\n \u201cWe told each other everything,\u201d Faith says. \u201cBut I know, during those last two months, she was hiding a bit from me, which has now come to light.<\/p>\n \u201cI wholeheartedly believe that she was doing that because I was going through hell.\u201d<\/p>\n Jana\u2019s death came at yet another crisis point for violence against women in Australia, in which two women and two girls were allegedly murdered<\/a> at the hands of men in four days.<\/p>\n Behind every statistic, there a trail of devastation.<\/p>\n Fellow support worker Michael Platt says Jana always provided \u201cgenuine care\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether it was a client who was high functioning or non-verbal, she was there, present with them, engaging with them on their level,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just made the world feel like a better place, being in her company\u201d.<\/p>\n Deshal was \u201csuch a big mumma\u2019s boy\u201d, Faith says.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Jana was in the room and someone else was holding him, he would always be looking for her, to see where she was.\u201d<\/p>\n Now he\u2019s living with Faith and will be raised as her own, just as promised.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s doing all right in the sense that he\u2019s happy and he\u2019s looked after and he\u2019s fed.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, yeah, I can just see that he\u2019s missing his mum.\u201d<\/p>\n In Australia, domestic and family violence counselling <\/a>is available from Full Stop Australia on 1800 385 578. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline<\/a> on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women\u2019s Aid<\/a>. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sisters Jana Armstrong and Faith Isaacs were supposed to raise their children together. 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