As mental health week continues on, the Moose Jaw branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) held a mayor’s luncheon Wednesday to talk about forgiveness, and how it relates to mental health.
Joy Desjarlais, a writer born in Montreal Lake and current Moose Jaw resident, spoke to a crowd of about 65 people at Timothy Eaton Gardens about how she dealt with a past experience and learned to forgive.
In January, 2000, Desjarlais’ nephew Darrell Night was picked up by police in Saskatoon and driven to the outskirts of the city where he was abandoned in the minus 30 degree weather.
“There is really nothing I can do about what they’ve done in the past. But what I can do is make a positive change for the future,” she said.
She spoke of the anger she felt and how she got over it. At the end of her speech, she had everyone in the building write down something they needed to let go of, and put it in a garbage bag. Everyone in the building happily took part, including Mayor Glenn Hagel.
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