Super parent Joyce Milgaard dies

Joyce Milgaard passed away this weekend at a Winnipeg seniors’ home, with her family by her side. It was an enormous honour two decades ago to help Joyce write her memoir, “A Mother’s Story: the fight to free my son David.” I got to know her well while reporting for The Toronto Star on her efforts to free David and clear his name after he was wrongly convicted of rape and murder. I remember asking her how she slept at night, as her son was locked in some of Canada’s roughest prisons. She said she slept soundly because she didn’t have time for recreational grief and she had a job to do. “Worrying is mistrusting God,” she said. She succeeded. David was freed and the real killer and rapist was convicted. She was a force of nature and helped make the justice system better. She enriched my life too and I’ll always be grateful.

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