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Her daughter, Tonya Kelly-Lepe, lay sick in her hospital bed in Calgary in May 2009. She had cancer in her colon and liver, which had spread to other organs. It was terminal.Her family made the trip to Calgary from their home on Frederick Street in Whitney Pier to say goodbye. After she told McKenzie that she loved her, Kelly-Lepe then spoke her final words: a question that McKenzie doesn’t believe will ever have an answer:She died before her mother could respond.
They’ll even bring McKenzie gifts at Christmas. One recent present she received was a doll that she said looked like her daughter.Tonya Kelly-Lepe, who grew up on Frederick Street in Whitney Pier. She moved to Calgary when she was 25 to begin working for WestJet but was soon diagnosed with terminal cancer in her colon and liver. She died from the disease when she was 33.
“She called me and told me that it was cancer and that it was terminal,” she said. The fact cancer had already spread to her liver was a death sentence. Doctors said she had about 18 months to live.In fact, Kelly-Lepe endured nearly another two years of declining health, dramatically losing weight and requiring a colostomy bag. Her mother would only be able to travel to see her a few times before she passed away.
Residents always had some degree of concern living on the street, being near the tar ponds and Sydney Steel Corporation. But what pushed that concern over the top was what McKenzie found one day returning home from work — a person in a HAZMAT suit fencing off an area of land near her home. A sign on the fence read “human hazard.” Yet, no one was told to leave.
From there, she said residents fought “until the bitter end.” Finally, in May 1999, the provincial government offered to buy residents’ homes at market value if they desired to move somewhere else. Some residents — like daughter Tonya Kelly-Lepe — won’t be around to find out whether residents will receive their answers.
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