A distinctive First Nations walking stick stolen from a Songhees elder last week was found and turned in to West Shore RCMP on Monday.
“I could hear it in his voice, I could hear how happy he was,” said his step-daughter Lisa Mollett, who talked to Billy Joseph Sr. as he was on his way to the police detachment to pick up the intricately carved and brightly painted walking stick.
“It was one-of-a-kind,” Mollett said. “It was a huge sentimental value to him.”
The stick was found in some bushes and turned in by someone who read the news of the theft.
Joseph left the stick in his car parked on Ned Williams Road, off Craigflower Road, on Aug. 17 and it was stolen through an open window.
The walking stick holds sentimental value for the 64-year-old Songhees First Nation elder, as it was a gift from Joseph’s late cousin, Rudy Charlie, 33 years ago.
The stick was originally used in the longhouse, but Joseph, who suffers from fibromyalgia, now uses it as a cane to help him walk. — Times Colonist
