Ministry helps further family tragedy
ON a forested back road in the cottage country outside Timmins, Ontario, the young woman driving was practising for her upcoming road test. She was with her husband and a family friend as well as their five-year-old daughter.
She had driven about 30 kilometres on the winding gravel road when she lost control.
The car flipped and came to rest against a big rock which smashed through the side windows. The little girl's head was crushed by the rock, killing her instantly.
Can any of us truly imagine the mother's grief as she stared down at her little girl on the cold hospital gurney?
She put her hands on the little girl's gaping mouth and gently closed it.
She then folded her tiny hands on her chest, bent over and kissed her only child goodbye -- forever.
On the day of the funeral, she spent several hours alone with the open casket containing her child. Because of the nature of the injuries, the hospital had to cut the little girl's hair to treat the damage to her head.
The mother didn't want people to see her that way. She went and purchased a small, flowered veil to hide the damage.
After the couple buried the battered and broken little girl, the mother couldn't cope with the memories in their home. Every room meant something. Every stick of furniture reminded her of an event, a moment of time spent with her cherished child.
The dad did what he could. He tried to convince his wife it wasn't her fault, but nothing helped. They decided to sell their house and move to British Columbia, to look for a fresh start.
The couple, who had fled their native Romania and the despotic, brutal regime of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, took a substantial financial loss on their home just to get away from the nightmares.
Ten months after the tragic death of their precious little girl, they moved to the Lower Mainland and rented an apartment, anxious to put their tragedy behind them.
Little did they know at the time, the troubles of their past would ultimately manifest themselves into problems that would put them at odds with a government's ham-fistedness which would do the late, but not lamented, Ceausescu proud.
You see, when Iaon Marcu left his wife and little girl in a small village in Romania and secretly fled to the west, Ceausescu's secret police arrested the young mother, Maricela, and demanded to know the whereabouts of her husband.
She didn't know exactly and told the government thugs that. Despite their anger, they shrugged in frustration and left Maricela and her two-year-old daughter alone. They were able to join Iaon in Timmins just a few months later.
On Feb. 1, 1994, Maricela gave birth to a boy and a new source of joy for the couple. But she couldn't shake the guilt of what had happened to her little girl. She was depressed and suffered from headaches and occasional loss of balance.
A year and a half later, on April 27, 1995, she gave birth to another child, a girl.
Unfortunately, the child was born with an umbilical infection. Perhaps not a big deal, but for a mom wracked with the guilt of believing she was solely responsible for the death of her first born, any medical problem became dire.
She was so worried for the baby, she became what can only be described as over-protective.
Apparently this is a bad thing if one believes the Ministry for Children and Families.
When the little girl was almost three years old, she developed a urinary tract infection which was sporadic in its symptoms.
Maricela began taking the child to her family doctor describing the problem. But the doctor couldn't diagnose any specific ailment.
And that's where the trouble started.
Maricela Marcu was going to do everything in her power to ensure this little girl was protected. She owed it to her because of what had happened to her first daughter.
But because the family doctor couldn't diagnose the trouble with the child, she suggested the possibility the mother, Maricela, might have Munchausen's Syndrome By Proxy (MSBP), a dubious psychiatric condition in which the sufferer harms a third person ostensibly to get attention for himself.
In steps the NDP government.
The little girl was examined by a battery of doctors who were unable to find any medical problem.
The child exhibited all the symptoms of a relatively simple urinary tract infection, but the doctors ignored the mother's information largely, I suspect, because of the first physician's suggestion of MSBP.
Ultimately, another doctor diagnosed and successfully treated the problem. But by now the ministry was fixated on the mother.
They attempted to seize the little girl from the family. Maricela Marcu went into hiding to keep the child away from the "brownshirts" masquerading as social workers.
Before Judge William MacDonald, the father, Iaon Marcu, was ordered to divulge the whereabouts of his wife and daughter.
But he couldn't.
He literally didn't know. By design of family advocate Kari Simpson of the Citizen's Research Institute, mom and the two kids were taken to an undisclosed location.
The assigned social worker, a forty-something female without any apparent specific qualifications, named Julie Cringle, applied the wealth of her two years' experience and petitioned the court to force Iaon to reveal the whereabouts. Judge MacDonald tried to force the man by sentencing him to 30 days in jail.
Fortunately, last Friday, Judge MacDonald had a fit of common sense and released Iaon two weeks into his sentence. A psychiatric assessment of Maricela by highly respected UBC forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Joe Noone, determined she had some emotional neuroses (who wouldn't?) but she did not have MSBP. Did this change the way the ministry dealt with the case.
Hardly. They wanted to shop for a doctor until they found someone who would come up with the "right" findings.
Currently a warrant exists for the arrest of Maricela Marcu and the apprehension of their little girl.
Why? Because she's an over-protective mother?
Maricela Marcu needs some help to overcome her guilt and emotional trauma to assist her in the way she raises her kids. No question. But the last thing she (or the little girl) needs is the ham-fisted approach of a socialist collection of morons masquerading as professionals in the Ministry for Children and Families.
Ceausescu's communists didn't even dare do what Glen Clark's army of lunatics don't seem to have a problem with.
Source: North Shore News
