Kelly McKenzie (Friend of family)

Entered April 25, 2019 from Vernon, British Columbia

Thoughts and prayers are with you.

Nisreen Khambati (Saturday Respite Program Assistant)

Entered April 25, 2019 from Toronto

I’m shocked and so saddened by this news. Joey was such a joy to be around...his beautiful soul will be missed very much. To all those who had the privilege of knowing Joey, please accept my heartfelt condolences, and especially the Edwards and Domingues family.

Mary Cherry (Friend)

Entered April 25, 2019 from Ponoka

My Condolences to you Kathleen, keeping u in our thoughts and hearts during this very very sad time.

Jessica Kirbyson 

Entered April 25, 2019 from Red Deer

So sorry for your loss. My thoughts are with you and your family.

Julie Robinson (Co- worker)

Entered April 25, 2019

My deepest condolences to you Kathleen and your family. Another angel gets his wings. May your sweet boy Joey rest in peace.

I thought so long about how to start this. The obvious answer was with his name. Joey. But he was a young man of so many different names. Before birth, he was my Joser. I remember vividly how excited I was when I found out my mom was pregnant, when I found out it was a boy, and when the planning came for his baby shower. I wanted to be the perfect big sister and to plan the perfect party. I remember holding him for the first time and instantly becoming his protector. I was his big sister, he was my one and only baby brother and nothing could come between that bond.

I remember countless times when we would have Joey sitting in his bouncer watching treehouse. It was like clockwork. When I was home from school, around dinner time, Franklin would come on. For whatever reason he loved the show, but about partway through the theme song he would scream and scream until somebody held him and turned it off. We all thought it was so funny and really never understood it, but it was just one of Joey's many silly quirks that made him who he was.

Mom was always looking for picture opportunities of the two of us, and boy am I ever grateful for that. Typically I was pretty cooperative, but it was a challenge the day he had a bath and decided to poop in my hand while I was holding him. I had to stand there, trying my hardest to smile, while holding his poopy bum. And that wasn’t the last of situations like these. A few years later he was hanging off my leg and wouldn’t let go. I joking said “hey Joey, I farted on you”. Silence. Nothing. And then finally he replied “hey Ashley. I peed on you” and sure enough my whole leg and the carpet beneath me were covered in pee.
These were two of Joey's favourite stories to tell again and again to whoever would listen. True bonding moments in the eyes of a younger brother.

Joey was so incredibly thoughtful and aware of the people around him. Years back, Joey somehow managed to rip his winter coat. He got a puppy patch put on his coat and it was ready to go for the winter. He was less than impressed with this puppy patch on his coat, and the kids at school thought it was pretty goofy. Joey loves puppies though. It took just one quick conversation with his big sister to be convinced that the puppy patch was super cool. A couple years later, I received mail from Joey. I opened it up and instantly cried. He had removed the puppy patch from the coat once he had outgrown it, put a string through it and made it a Christmas ornament. He called to tell me he knew how much I loved that patch and that he wanted me to have it. Every year since, when I put up my Christmas tree, the ornament touches my heart.

Jo Jo had a special kind of heart. A heart that touched those around him more deeply than most others. He had a special place for dogs and children. The thing about about these two things are that they require a special kind of heart to love. Dogs have a sixth sense about who can be trusted. Joey had two dogs who he loved dearly. Teddy (also known as Teddy Bear Edward) was his first and had been in his life since he was 6months old. For a very short period of their life they were the same height, with the same hair colour. Roader (also known as Roader Doader Domingues) was his first puppy that was strictly his. He always had the most interesting name for all his stuffies. Roader was no exception. Joey said he was a “road champion”, whatever that means. Joey spoke to those dogs like they were his best friends and they always looked forward to 3:30pm when he walked in the door from school.

Children know in their heart who truly love them and recognize a kindred spirit. I’ll never know if it was because of Joey's age that his bond was so strong with Christina, or because of how he made her feel, but I’ve truly never seen her bond to anyone else in that way.

Eventually Jo Jo Bunny got older, and before he knew it, he was the coolest uncle on the block. He was quickly named Uncle Yaya by Christina and boy did he ever love his special nickname. I don’t think Joey had any experience with babies, but he was enthralled with learning how to be the best uncle...a trait I remember from myself as I navigated the waters of being a big sister. He would sing to her, read to her, play with her. When Christina was about 8 months old, I was out for the evening and Christina was with Mom and Mama. Christina was not having it that night. She screamed and cried, refusing to settle until Uncle Joey came. The pictures of her all blotchy faced, with tears in her eyes looking up and stroking Joey's face....that was their relationship. The love between those two was an immediate and eternal love. When we were around as Christina got older, poor Joey was the brunt of the never ending toddler energy. She always had a million questions, a need to be hand in hand with him, demanding to have his undivided attention every minute of every day. Like any 12 year old boy, it was a challenge to tolerate being in such high demand but he always met her with patience and love.

When we weren’t around we often FaceTimed and if we were ever talking to my mom or mama, Christina was always immediately asking “where’s uncle Yaya”. Joey had a fairly short attention span when it came to phone calls. I remember so many phone calls when I’d be talking to him and I’d hear mom in the background saying “talk to your sister, your sister said I love you”. When Joey was in the hospital I called a few times. Most times he was very tired and didn’t have too much to say so we kept it short. On Saturday afternoon I called Joey while he was watching avengers in the hospital. We chatted a bit about Easter, the menu in the hospital, the movie. This was the last time I spoke to Joey. Looking back I remembered the vague outline of the conversation. While writing this that whole moment replayed in my head and I remembered exactly what our last words to one another were. I told him I loved him and he said fairly quietly, as if the conversation had tuckered him out “I love you the most”.

We will all mourn the loss of Joey. It was a tragic, unexpected and unexplainable loss. Something I constantly remind myself is that Joey always hated being away from anyone. He hated goodbyes. He always wanted to be able to spend every minute of everyday with all those that he loved. And from now on, Joey will get to be beside each and every one of us whenever he needs us, and whenever we need him. We will always remember him, and I know everyone here will remember that smiley, goofy, one of a kind person that Joey was.

I am going to try to get through this without breaking into my ugly cry because no one needs to see that. Joey was a joker and so I will do what he would want, which is share some of our funniest moments together.

From a very young age, Joey had the talent of making people laugh, even if he didn’t know it. When he was learning to talk, I was driving with him and his mom and he started freaking out in his car seat yelling Tim Hortons, Tim Hortons! I said to his mom, what is he saying? And she said, Tim Hortons. He only goes there with his Grandmother and so he only knows how to say it with a Portuguese accent. Then she said, watch this- Joey, what’s that in the sky? He looked up at the plane and said, Air Canada!

In addition to accents, Joey was great at picking up new words, which wasn’t always a good thing. When he was three, he and his cousin were together in the car being driven to a cottage in Sauble beach and when they arrived at their cottage, the boys were playing and their parents noticed the boys were chanting something over and over again. It took awhile to figure out what they were saying but eventually the adults figured out that the boys had learned some lyrics to a new song. Two words, actually... Birthday Sex, Birthday Sex. That took some re-programming and a new DJ on the ride home.

As Joey grew, his humor evolved. He figured out that being funny could get him out of trouble quickly. When he knew he was about to get in trouble, he would do something unexpected to make his mom laugh and hopefully deflect the attention from his punishment. My favorite was when he’d come into the room, look at his mom and yell, I’m Mr Fancy Pants! She couldn’t stop from smiling... and he knew he was off the hook.

He called me and his mom his “Girls” and one time, in a hot tub on our vacation to Disney, he came over, sat between us, put his arms around both of us, leaned back and said, “ahhhhh, this is the life.”. That was my Jo-Jo Bunny.

Speaking of Jo-Jo Bunny, that and Little Man were Joey’s two nicknames. Little Man because that’s what he looked like as a baby, a little man. Jo-Jo Bunny was the one that stuck and one day when I visited the house, Joey came to the door and I excitedly said, “Hi Jo-Jo Bunny!” And Joey gave me one of his famous hugs and said, “can you please stop calling me that? I’m just Joey.” And I said, disappointed, “Ok”. Joey could see I was sad that I couldn’t call him Jo Jo Bunny anymore and he quickly whispered to me, “except maybe just in the house.”. So I was allowed to call him Jo Jo Bunny, but only at home.

Joey didn’t like to see people sad or upset and would do anything to make you happy. I think most people know Joey had a love and incredible talent for video games. I used to sit and play Mario Kart with him and I’d lose, over and over again. So he started giving me a ten second head start. I still couldn’t win. Finally, frustrated with my dismal performance and out of sheer pity for me, Joey looked at me after winning yet again and said, “Okay Tia, this time I’ll play with my eyes closed.” I finally won a game.

My last memory with Joey was this past Christmas. I was babysitting Joey’s niece Christina and her and I went to visit Joey who was playing a new video game I hadn’t seen before. It was called Fortnite and he had a headset on while playing. His niece was so excited to see him, she started jumping all over him. Joey kept saying, Christina, stop, get down. And I could hear the other kids responding to him over the TV speakers... “Who’s Christina? Is that a new player? Where is she?” And Joey responding, “no, that’s my niece, Christina, get off” and the other players respond, “you’re an uncle?”. Joey finally looked at me and said, Tia, a little help please?” And the other players said, “who’s Tia?” Then poor Joey had to explain, “That’s my aunt guys” and the confused players now responded, “I thought you just said you were the uncle!”. Joey had it - he just looked at me and I promptly removed his niece from the room. When I got back, I became fascinated by this Fortnite game and I started asking him, “who is that guy?” “Why do you build those forts so high?” “How do you know which ones are on your team?” “Oh, make your guy dance again, that’s funny! Why does he do that?”. Joey answered every question then said to his playmates, “hang on guys. I’ll be right back.” Then he paused the game, took off his headset, looked at me and said, Tia, if you just let me play this game in peace, I promise I’ll put on Mario Cart after and let you win.

Joey, as most know, was on the Spectrum. That came with a lot of challenges, but, it also came with what I think made Joey so special. Joey only displayed emotions that he could recognize and truly felt. That is why I am so thankful to know that every time he hugged me and said I love you, he meant it.

Until we meet again, my Jo Jo Bunny, Tia loves you.

Good afternoon. I’m Wayne and I have had the privilege of being Joey’s Uncle for more than 10 years. When I heard the sad and shocking news of his passing I could not help but lament about all the things we did not get to do together. But after some reflection I realized I should be grateful for all the things I did get to do with Joey in his short life, and I would like to share a few of those memories with you.
The first time I met Joey, and in fact most of the Edward family, he was celebrating his first birthday. I had not had much exposure to young children at that point but was eager to make a good impression. Someone placed Joey in my lap where he sat content for a while until I decided it was time to put him down. Even at one year Joey was about twice the size of a normal kid his age so he tended to look a lot older than he was. And I didn’t realize he had not yet learned to walk. So I stood him up in front of me where he teetered for a few seconds and then fell flat on his face on the patio and began to wail. So you could say our first meeting didn’t go so well.
But as I became part of the family I also became “D’Uncle Wayne”. A title I was so proud to wear. A few years later I accompanied Joey on a family trip to Disney World. It was so much fun watching him experience all the wonders of Disney for the first time. And as a bonus Joey had qualified for a special pass that allowed him and his party to go to the front of the line at every ride – so he was a good guy to know! I’ve always been a little nervous about roller coaster rides and there was one ride in particular – Jurassic Park - that I chickened out of at the last minute. So Joey and the rest of our party went on the ride while I waited and reconsidered my decision. The line to get on the ride was a mile long so as soon as they got off, I said to Joey – “hey that looks like fun, how about you go again with Uncle Wayne”. Joey looked me in the eye and said “There is no way I am EVER going on that ride again!”. And that was it -end of discussion. Joey always knew exactly what he wanted.
But it could sometimes be hard to tell what Joey was feeling. Like when we got him a Bautista Blue Jays jersey and hat for his birthday. I was so excited to give this gift to him as I knew how much he loves his favorite sports teams and especially jerseys. He opens the gift and his reaction was pretty muted – so to me it looked like a fail. The next time I saw Joey the hat we had given him was soaked with sweat stains because he never took it off and Kathleen told me he wore the jersey to school every day for a week. So I guess it was a home run after all. And making Joey happy always made me happy.
Joey could be such a character and the final memory I would like to share is from an early summer day a couple years ago when Joey came to my place anxious for day swimming in our pool. Unfortunately, there was a problem with pool and I had to visit the pool store, so I asked Joey to ride along. At the store I proudly introduced Joey to the clerk as my nephew. Joey looks up at us with an incredulous look on his face and exclaims “you’re my uncle?!?”. Nobody knew what to make of this and I had visions of an Amber Alert broadcast flash before my eyes.
I have many, many more fond memories of Joey as I’m sure we all do. He was a special kid with such a big heart. He touched so many people in such a short period of time. When something inexplicable like this happens we all have a need to try and make sense of it. I can’t make any sense of this. But I know that I am a better person for having known Joey. And maybe that’s all the sense I need. Rest in peace little man.