Faith Isaacs knew her big sister was in terrible trouble a few days before her body was found – because nothing would have kept her from her infant son. Sisters Jana Armstrong and Faith Isaacs were supposed to raise their children together. But just a few weeks ago, in the shock of grief, the young mothers made a pact. If one should die before her time, the other would raise her sister's son.
"Just because Jana and I are quite well aware of how unexpected life can be," Faith says. "And how short life can be." The agreement was struck around the time of the funeral for Faith's newborn daughter, Lehara, on 8 June in the regional Queensland city of Toowoomba, where the sisters were born and raised.
Jana's lifelong role as caretaker
It fell to Jana to plan the funeral of her baby niece, who died after her mother experienced birth complications. Because she and Faith were inseparable. Because it always fell to Jana. The oldest daughter of four siblings, Jana was a maternal figure in her family even as a child. Cerebral palsy paralysed her mum, Robyn. Her father, Ron, was deaf. Jana used to help Robyn and her wheelchair into the family's van. She was fluent in sign language.
"From the age of seven we were caring for our parents," Faith says. "Jana and I would both get in and bathe our mother, toilet her and help with all that kind of stuff. At seven, we had to start doing our own washing, packing our school lunches – we were very independent. We just dealt with whatever life threw at us from such a young age." Jana, Faith says, always took the lead. "And I was always just standing beside her just saying, 'Yep', just agreeing with everything that she said," Faith laughs.
Close bond and the pact
After their parents died, the sisters were closer than ever. They would talk every day, visit every second. When Faith and her husband, Michael, traveled around Australia with their toddler, Thiago, last year, Jana joined them at the Birdsville races and travelled to Uluru. Family members joked that Jana was the third person in Faith's marriage. "They were basically a package deal," says their cousin, Hannah Sweedman. "They did everything together."
At 30, Jana became a mother to a child of her own. Deshal was three months old when Jana spoke at Lehara's funeral, when the sisters made their pact. Exactly four weeks after that day, one sister knew with terrible certainty that she would be forced to make good on that promise. This time, it would not fall to Jana.
Disappearance and discovery
Last Wednesday, Jana's car was found abandoned in a street near her home, her young son inside their flat. Her body was found in bushland northeast of Toowoomba three days later. Within hours of that first call from police saying she was missing, Faith knew Jana would not be coming home. Because Jana would never have left her baby Deshal. "She always wanted to be a mum, that was her dream," Faith later told reporters. "She loved every day, every minute spending time with her son. She was never away from him."
She made the comments outside the Toowoomba magistrates court, where Deshal's biological father and Jana's former partner, Dharminder Singh, had appeared, charged with her murder. His lawyer indicated that Singh would plead not guilty.
Last moments and hidden worries
Looking back on the final time she saw Jana, the Tuesday that she was reported missing, Faith now recognises her sister was worried. The two women were out for brunch – though it is hard to have a proper conversation eating out with a toddler and a baby, Faith says. Jana was kicking a soccer ball around with Thiago. She was on maternity leave from her job as a support worker, and due to return to work in two months. "We told each other everything," Faith says. "But I know, during those last two months, she was hiding a bit from me, which has now come to light. I wholeheartedly believe that she was doing that because I was going through hell."
Impact and legacy
Jana's death came at yet another crisis point for violence against women in Australia, in which two women and two girls were allegedly murdered at the hands of men in four days. Behind every statistic, there a trail of devastation. Fellow support worker Michael Platt says Jana always provided "genuine care". "Whether it was a client who was high functioning or non-verbal, she was there, present with them, engaging with them on their level," he says. "It just made the world feel like a better place, being in her company."
Deshal was "such a big mumma's boy", Faith says. "If Jana was in the room and someone else was holding him, he would always be looking for her, to see where she was." Now he's living with Faith and will be raised as her own, just as promised. "He's doing all right in the sense that he's happy and he's looked after and he's fed. But, yeah, I can just see that he's missing his mum."
In Australia, domestic and family violence counselling is available from Full Stop Australia on 1800 385 578. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women's Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.
