Phyllis Dyson was at university when her mother was shot to death by an RCMP officer at a Vancouver Skytrain station. Although she knew her mother suffered from schizophrenia, it was 25 years before she researched the tragedy and came to fully understand how this disease had impacted their lives. The result is Among Silent Echoes (Caitlin Press), in which Dyson interweaves her own childhood trauma with her mother’s mental health challenges.
“My mother had needed help, not bullets,” Dyson says. But the book soon makes it clear that her mother was not the only one who needed help that was not forthcoming. When she was eight years old, Dyson and her older brother, Ron, were placed in the foster care system. Her mother, she discovered, had fought hard to have them returned, but she was only allowed occasional visits and the children remained in the custody of an aunt and uncle who soon moved them to a small town in the Cariboo. While Dyson yearned for love and support, she and Ron were treated as free help, forced to babysit their three young cousins and clean house for no pay or gratitude. In her quest for the truth, she recreates a childhood and youth of adventure, hardship and abuse and the enduring bond of love between her, Ron and their mother that touches the heart.
Among Silent Echoes is about more than trauma and resilience. It is a clear example of how the mental health and child protection agencies failed in their responsibility to help and protect this family and of the need for a greater understanding of schizophrenia and other mental health issues.
