Camille Strickland-Murphy’s Memory lives on this
Christmas and forever
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| Mollie Jameson, Camille (centre) and Hayley Drohan participate in Secret Santa |
Camille Strickland Murphy left us too early on July 28, 2015 at the age of 22, but rest assured, her beautiful soul lives on this Christmas.
Every year for 11 years Camille and her friends would participate in a
Secret Santa where each person would draw a name out of a hat and then purchase
a gift for the person whose name they drew. The anonymous exchange which took
place a few days before Christmas was always filled with laughter and good
memories of sports and school, boyfriends and family. Even
after many of the girls moved away they still found a way to pick names (using
an app) and hold the event when everyone was home.
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| The Secret Santa friends |
“Camille was intelligent, highly articulate, irreverent, ridiculously funny
and a good friend to many,” reads her obituary. “She highly valued and built
strong and enduring friendships. Even when her mental illness and related
problems overcame her …, her good friends and their families continued to try
to support her in any way that they could…”
Although Camille cannot be with her friends this Christmas, they continue to support her. This year instead of choosing names, 22 girls
took the money they would have spent on Secret Santa gifts, plus a bit more,
and pooled it together to buy a treadmill in Camille’s memory for the Newfoundland & Labrador Correctional Center
for Women (NLCCW) in Clarenville where Camille had
spent time. During her incarceration Camille, who lived to sail and was a super runner and downhill
skier, often lamented the lack of recreational equipment in
prison.
“There was not a lot of
opportunity to work out (for Camille),” says Maria Clift, who will present craft
supplies, soccer balls, basketballs, volleyballs and footballs on December 24 to Shelley Michelin, Assistant Superintendent
of the Clarenville Correctional Centre where the treadmill has already been delivered. “We felt recreational
equipment would benefit the prison. The inmates would be in better shape. At
some point it has to be about rehabilitation and not just about punishment. The
way (Camille) would talk about (athletics) was like no one else, especially sailing,”
says Clift adding that once word spread about the idea, many others contributed
to the cause raising enough money to donate an exercise bike as well as a
treadmill.
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| Camille doing what she loved best |
So to Cecily, Noel, Keir, Lois and the rest of the Strickland and Murphy
families, Merry Christmas. Please know that Camille has not been forgotten.
