Christmas letter, 2010 wrap-up & 2011 beginning

by JessiesMomGlendene | December 18, 2010 at 05:12 pm

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Well, here it is, December 18, 2010 – one week before Christmas, before the 5th Christmas without Jessie. How in the world could so much time have gone by and me still sane? Well, as sane as possible.

So much has happened since Jessie has been missing – things with her case and things with our family. The biggest and best things to have happened were the births of my grandchildren. Jessie went missing in 2006 and in 2007 I became a grandma for the first time.

It was such a life changing moment that I had to get out of the past were I had been stuck since March 29, 2006 and get into the present where there was a little baby girl that needed things. My daughter, her mommy, needed me to give her advice and help some times and I had to be there for them. I had to be there for all 4 of my daughters and now all 3 of my grandchildren.

So, against what I would have preferred to do back then, I decided to get back into life as much as possible. I knew that it would not be the same, but I also knew that when (some say if) Jessie comes home; I needed to be sane and ready to help her with anything that she needs.

I also knew that I had to be sane for Crystal, Katie and Jennee as they were all young women with their entire lives ahead of them and they needed to succeed in whatever they did. I felt they would not be able to if they had to worry, not just about their missing sister, but about their crazy mom. THEY DO NOT DESERVE THAT.

It was then that I decided that I did not need anti-depressants (I told Dr. Patterson that I was not depressed I was sad and therefore I did not need to be on any pills). Truthfully though, I was quite not ready to face the world, so for a short time I tried drinking, but I have never really been much of a fan of alcohol, so I quit that.

Then I discovered that I felt so much better if I wrote (typed) things out that were on my mind. That is my ‘anti-depressant’ . . . that is my drug!! And to top it off, I hear from people all the time telling me that they just read something I had written and that it helped them understand things so much better; or they realized that if I could do it, then so could they – and they somehow seemed to get strength from my words. I have also been told by hundreds of people that I have opened their eyes to the crime of missing persons and human trafficking and they thank me for this.

I have had such a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that I am actually helping people. I mean, to me, I am just me – a woman, a mother and a grandmother. To others I am brave and a source of information and advice on the missing and on human trafficking. Can you imagine?

Can you imagine how good it felt when I got a call from a mother whose daughter is possibly being set up to be a victim of human trafficking – telling me that Jessie’s case has opened her eyes and now she sees what is really happening? Getting me to speak to her daughter, who I have bonded with and grown to care a great deal about, about things I know and about Jessie and how she thought she was in love with the person who we believe knows something about her disappearance.

Can you imagine how good it felt when I got a call from a mother whose daughter was ‘lured’ to the USA and was most likely being ‘groomed’ to be a prostitute? She believes her daughter may end up in a position similar to Jessie and after reading things I had written, she called me and I was able to give her some advice and introduce her to some people who have been helping her.

CAN YOU IMAGINE? It is the next best thing to getting Jessie back.

I wanted to touch on this LOVE thing I mentioned above. Jessie was in love with her “fiancé” (I will call him, “HE” or “HIM” from now on, because he was no more her true fiancé than I am) with all her heart. She was 21 and thought this was it – she thought she would get married and . . . ya, live happily ever after. He proposed to her in a very short time and she wore a big, beautiful princess-cut diamond engagement ring.

Now, in his book INVISIBLE CHAINS: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking, Professor Benjamin Perrin termed this as LOVE BOMBING. This is from Chapter 5, BUYING LOCAL – CANADIAN VICTIMS, pages 61 and 62:

QUOTE. Poverty, the desire for love, and the desire for money, in that order, are the three key vulnerabilities that permit domestic sex traffickers to recruit and control victims, according to those familiar with the techniques. Applied with practised care, the routine proves enormously successful in coercing vulnerable underage girls and women into a life of sexual exploitation.

When traffickers encounter victims seeking love and attention, they commonly begin relationships by becoming “boyfriends” to their victims. This “falling in love” stage takes place over approximately two weeks. The girls are told they’re beautiful, and they’re taken to fancy restaurants and given lavish gifts. By showering a targeted girl with affection and fulfilling her material desires, the trafficker builds allegiance, eventually allowing him to manipulate her. Street gangs refer to these recruiting tactics as “love bombing”. The greater the value of the targeted female on the flesh market and the more sophisticated the trafficker, the longer he can take in “grooming” her.

This particular exploitation process requires that the girls be sexually inexperienced. For this reason, most are recruited between fourteen and sixteen, with some as young as twelve . . .

These inexperienced girls think they know more than they do . . .

He professes love while introducing other seemingly innocent acts to break down barriers, such as having a girl put on lingerie and dance for him. To create a sense of normality, the “boyfriend” will introduce sex acts that a girl may never have performed. UNQUOTE.

So, does that sound familiar to anyone???

- Jessie was originally taken to the USA on 2 “vacations”, but they were obviously not a vacation, they were part of her “grooming”.

- We know “he” was Jessie’s boyfriend for a few short weeks, perhaps a bit more than two weeks.

- Jessie was of great value to her traffickers (I was personally told by the owner of the escort agency that Jessie was beaten and forced to work at [not by the owner], that Jessie earned over $3,000 a night . . . but the next day had to borrow a dollar from someone to buy a bottle of soda-pop).

- From what we understand about “him”, “he” was very sophisticated.

- When Jessie first met the person who took her down to the USA (we will refer to him as a “recruiter”), she was still in high school and she was just 16 years old.

- Jessie did think she knew more than she did. I always say she thought she was invincible and was a city girl. When she came home to the small-city (or big-town) of Kamloops, she was becoming a “city girl”, but she was by no means, INVINCIBLE!

It sounds like Professor Perrin is specifically describing Jessie, (which already had, but in a previous chapter), but he was actually talking generally about a classic case of domestic human trafficking.

In 2007, when I was first told by the former human trafficking agency in Las Vegas called ATLAS (Anti-Trafficking League Against Slavery), that Jessie’s case was a CLASSIC CASE OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING, I was stunned. CLASSIC???

It shocked me that in North America, that in the 21st century, there was such a thing. Now it does not shock me at all. Sad, but true. I know now that human trafficking in North America is running rampant.

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To my Jessie-Bessie:

2010 . . . another Christmas without you here. Five Christmases of not knowing but never forgetting. I will always remember my last sight of you, it was on Christmas Day 2005 – SIX CHRISTMASES AGO. You were going into the Kamloops airport and you flew away, to the fate that awaited you, a fate that no one knew or saw coming, except maybe you, my girl.

We think of you and talk about you every day – I even talk TO you almost every day. We all miss you so much, but your sisters miss you like only a sister can. Crystal needs her little sister back, she needs you to be there in her life again. And your little sisters are both mothers now. Katie has a little boy Jacobus James, or JJ, who is almost 2 and Jennee has two little girls, Maddison Louise, or Maddie, is almost 3 and Ilianna Joy, or Ili, is almost 1. They are the most wonderful, beautiful, joyful little children you could ever know. Your little sisters need their big sister Jessie to know their babies. Their babies know you, sweetie. They love you already, and we promise you, no matter what, they will know you as we do.

We all love you baby and we all need you back. And always know this, sweet daughter of mine, I WILL FIND YOU . . . OR DIE TRYING. I love you baby-girl, love Mom. xoxoxoxox

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There have been so many people who wanted to share their Christmas spirit with us. All of the messages and prayers from everyone mean so much to me. Several people and businesses have sent us things, but I have been asked by some to not personally mention them. I still have to thank you all.

A Jessie supporter put some money in our bank account so we could pick up a few groceries; when we went to the store and ran into a dear friend of ours who insisted on putting some of the grocery costs on her bank card; we got a money order from a dear friend to go get some ingredients for baking (and I have . . . jam & butter tarts; chocolate & peanut butter cookies; banana bread); we got a Wal-Mart gift card from Bob at the Comedy Factory in Edmonton (he has also done 2 fundraisers for Jessie); the family of a missing woman in the USA sent us a donation (they thought of us when they too are going through the worst possible time a family can go through – another Christmas with a missing loved one); an anonymous Jessie supporter from Facebook dropped off some things at our house to help brighten our Christmas (then called from down the street to tell me to go outside, that something was out there for us); Shaw phone, Internet and TV gave us a $1,000 credit on our bill.

THANK YOU ALL, YOU HAVE TRULY HELPED TO BRIGHTEN CHRISTMAS FOR US.

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When Shaw called to tell me about their generous offer, they told me it was because a LITTLE BIRDIE sent them an email and Jessie’s story touched them so much they had to do something for us.

While talking about Jessie’s case, I was asked if Shaw has ever done anything for Jessie as far as an interview or PSA (public service announcement). I said no, and he told me that they will. Yesterday I got another call from Shaw asking if they can come over on Monday to interview me about Jessie’s case and everything I have been doing since she has been missing. I mentioned that lately a lot of my work has been with Crime Stoppers and I asked if Mark Price, the head of the Kamloops & District Crimes Stoppers officer could be here for part of the interview. He said of course. He also told me that it would start airing on Friday . . . Christmas Eve. Thank you Shaw!!

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Something else that happened yesterday, I got the following email reply from the show “Missing”. Our original communication was in 2007, but nothing ever became of it, so the other day I messaged them back and got a positive reply! They are featuring Jessie on episode M-633 of “Missing”, scheduled for January 10, 2011!! Can you believe it?

From: Glendene Grant

Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 9:45 PM

To: Telco Productions, Inc.

Subject: Re: "Missing"

Larry, thank you very much. This means a lot to me and to Jessie's case. Is there anything you need from me for this?

Sincerely, Glendene.

++++++++++

From: Telco Productions, Inc.

Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 5:16 PM

To: Glendene Grant

Subject: RE: "Missing"

Dear Ms. Grant,

Sorry for the long delay. We will feature a segment on Jessie Foster in episode M-633 of “Missing,” scheduled for the broadcast week of January 10, 2011 (will air the following weekend in most areas). Thank you for your patience, and for bringing Jessie’s case to our attention.

Kind regards,

Larry Dunn

Telco Productions, Inc.

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From: Glendene Grant

Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 10:01 AM

To: Telco Productions, Inc.

Subject: Re: "Missing"

I never did hear back from you and my daughter, Jessie Foster, is still missing. Glendene.

JESSIE FOSTER, international endangered missing woman and the victim of human trafficking.

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From: Telco Productions, Inc.

Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 10:46 AM

To: Glendene Grant

Subject: RE: "Missing"

Dear Ms. Grant,

Thank you for your e-mail; we’ll add Jessie’s case to those under consideration for future episodes of “Missing.” I will contact you when we are able to schedule an episode number and broadcast date.

Best wishes,

Larry Dunn

Telco Productions, Inc.

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From: Glendene Grant

Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2010 3:01 PM

To: Telco Productions, Inc.

Subject: Re: "Missing"

My daughter went missing from Las Vegas over 1 year ago:

My name is Glendene Grant. My daughter, Jessie Foster has been a missing person now for 1 year. She was living in Las Vegas, NV (we are from Kamloops, BC and her dad is from Calgary, AB Canada, where Jessie lived with him from 16 years old for grades 11 & 12). Jessie was living in Las Vegas from May 13th, 2005 until around March 28th, 2006, which was the last time we ever heard from her. Also since that time, her cell phone, credit cards, bank account & bankcard have not been touched. Ever.

Maybe you can do a story about Jessie - maybe put a link on your homepage to our website:www.jessiefoster.ca.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my email, and I hope I was not too forward...but as I am the mother of a missing daughter, I don't feel that I can be too forward anymore, at least at this time of my life. Take care, sincerely, Glendene Grant.

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I have also been invited to the official launch of a new human trafficking organization “Canadians Against Slavery” in Toronto, Ontario on January 28th (benefit concert) and 29th (conference), 2011. At this point I still need to see about trying to get some funding for the trip, as it was arranged before I recently decided to ask to be funded by the organizations who wanted me to attend their functions and fundraiser. But this is another important function that I feel is important for me to attend, so I won’t stop until it is arranged. Thankfully, what I cannot fund, C.A.S. will cover.

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Two more things I want to mention, neither are scheduled yet, but hopefully will be soon.

Having been to 3 different functions with Professor Perrin since October (Vancouver, Edmonton and again in Vancouver), I feel that we have bonded somewhat (prior to that, we had just emailed back-and-forth since 2007), so I got brave and asked him if there would be any chance of him ever coming and doing his talk to the residents of Kamloops and he said yes. I have not brought it up again yet, because things have been so busy for him, but I did talk to Crime Stoppers and they agree it would be a great idea to get him here! So, hopefully sometime in the new year Professor Perrin will grace us with his presence and help educate our citizens about the horrific crime of human trafficking!

Now, the following is kind of a long story, but only because it is 3 stories that connect to make my point.

PART 1 OF THE STORY: Back on March 29, 2007, on the one year of Jessie's disappearance, I got an email from a woman I had been communicating with at the missing person organization in the USA called the Carol Sund Foundation, telling me about a mother-daughter band in Edmonton, AB that she knew, she said years earlier, she had been in a band and toured with them. She emailed them and introduced me to Joanne and Haley Myrol their band is called Myrol. For almost 4 years I have been online friends with them, and even though we have not met yet, I feel very close to them and they do to me and to Jessie. I am not sure if I am supposed to tell anyone about this yet, so I guess this is 'off the record' for now, but Haley Myrol is in the middle of writing a song for Jessie. It is amazing, but she really is.

PART 2 OF THE STORY: In November I was in Vancouver for the Salvation Army's Hope in the City Luncheon fundraiser. I was their Hope Giver this year. The emcee was Pamela Martin, news anchor for Vancouver's CTV News at Six with Bill Good, and the guest speaker was UBC Assistant Professor of Law, Benjamin Perrin, the author of INVISIBLE CHAINS: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking. Jessie's case is written about in this book and Professor Perrin discusses her case across Canada, even during a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on October 27, 2010. On my flight back to Kamloops I was seated next to a cowboy. He had the boots, the belt and the hat and a very charming personality and he introduced himself as Allen Christie. He let me use his cell-phone to call my hubby to meet me, since my original flight had been cancelled due to the poor weather and I was lucky to get one of the last seats on one of the last flights that night. We talked and eventually he told me he was musician – country of course – and he was here to play at the Cowboy Christmas Concert at the Calvary Temple on Saturday. I asked him if he had a business card, and he did. He also told me he was on Facebook. I went to his main account and his Allen Christie fan page. It was on the fan page I saw you were the only fan in common that I had with him. On his friend page, I saw that I had 2 friends on common – Joanne & Haley Myrol. I thought – wow, what a small world. And after I commented on a picture that I knew Joanne & Haley and that I had met Allen, there was a comment from Marty Lee saying that his daughter Mackenzie Lee and my daughter Jennee Grant were friends – and the weekend before that, his daughter Mackenzie and his grandson Iszaac were at my daughter Jennee's 2 daughter's birthday party – one turned 3 and one turned 1. SMALL WORLD? YES!

PART 3 OF THE STORY: Joanne Myrol sent me this message after she saw my post about meeting Allen: That is so cool. (MEANING HOW I MET ALLEN ON THE FLIGHT FROM VANCOUVER TO KAMLOOPS) That boy really moves around. I think we're due for a show in Kamloops with Allen, don't you think so? Maybe something for Jessie. If you want to organize something, I'm sure we could put the Cowgrass and Roots Show together for that. We could raise some money.

Now . . . I have no idea how to organize a country music event. But I was hoping someone can help me. Maybe suggest a type of setting; a venue; and anything else I will need to do to host an event like this!

As you can see, there are still a lot of people who want to help us do whatever they can to find Jessie.

So, to my family, friends and Jessie supporters, I want to thank you all, again, for your continued love, support and prayers for Jessie and all of us. And without offending anyone (you all know I celebrate Christmas and that was the last day I ever say Jessie in person) I want to wish you all aVERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Sincerely and with love, not just Jessie’s, but also Crystal, Katie & Jennee’s mom and Maddison, Jacobus & Ilianna’s grandma, Glendene.