Jodi McCullough marks March 15 as the second anniversary of her twin sister’s death from a fentanyl overdose. She plans to ‘keep fighting’ for a better life for those without shelter.
If you’ve travelled on the Confederation LRT line lately, you may have noticed six stylized portraits on the stations’ walls. Each subject is someone whose life, in one way or another, has overlapped with the Shepherds of Good Hope. Their written stories are superimposed on each of the black-and-white images, the text following the contours and shadows of their faces. In that way, their stories are literally etched on their faces.
Each is also accompanied by a QR code, so commuters can discover these stories at their convenience.
Together, the six portraits comprise Faces of Hope, a campaign by the Shepherds aimed at breaking down the stigma of homelessness. The images remind us that behind every person in need of shelter are friends and families whose lives are also affected. The homeless are not mere statistics, or one-dimensional stories. They are community members as much as you and I.
At the campaign’s launch the other day, one of the portraits and stories especially caught my imagination. The woman in the photo is Jodi McCullough, a Gatineau resident and mother of a four-year-old girl. I wondered what she saw when she looked at her photo. Did she just see a picture of herself, or did she see her identical twin sister, Jordan Leigh McCullough, some of whose ashes Jodi keeps in a crucifix she wears around her neck? And I wondered how Jodi felt as March 15 approached, the date marking the second anniversary of Jordan’s death from a fentanyl overdose when she was just 29.
Growing up in Brownsburg-Chatham, Que., near Lachute, the sisters were always close, in those ways non-twins can only imagine. They shared a bedroom until they were 12, and felt each other’s emotions. They asked the same questions. They cheered one another on as Jordan sang and Jodi danced. In a difficult upbringing without other siblings or a father figure, the two often had only each other to rely upon, with Jordan — the elder by 13 minutes — typically assuming the maternal role.
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“She was my protector, my mother, my safe place and my best friend,” recalls Jodi.
There were traumas, including feelings of abandonment and self-doubt. Jordan numbed hers with substance use. In her 20s, she’d been a client at the Shepherds of Good Hope, staying at their shelter in Ottawa when the guilt of couch-surfing with friends and family got too great to bear.
“She always felt like a burden,” says Jodi. “Even at her lowest, she was always apologizing. She had so much guilt and shame.”
Jordan eventually went to Toronto for a three-month rehab program, after which, for a while at least, she thrived. “She was singing with a joy that had once defined her,” recalls Jodi, adding that Jordan enrolled in a course to become an addictions counsellor. “She wanted to turn her pain into purpose.”
But on March 14 or 15, 2023, only days before her return to school, Jordan relapsed and used again.
In the early-morning hours of the day Jordan died in her Bowmanville apartment, Jodi had a premonition that her sister was dead, and texted her to tell her that. When she didn’t hear back, and after Jordan missed a therapist’s appointment on the 15th, Jodi asked the OPP to do a wellness check. A dispatcher later told her that the coroner had been sent to collect Jordan’s body.
Despite her sister’s death two years ago, Jodi still feels the same deep and abiding connection to Jordan that the two shared growing up. Along with the ashes she wears around her neck, Jodi also wears a ring that belonged to her sister. And she refuses to allow Jordan’s death to be in vain.
A year ago, she started The Jordan Leigh Foundation, a registered charity that, through education, community outreach, fundraising and direct support, helps address mental health and addiction.
This year, she agreed to be one of the six faces of the Faces of Hope campaign, sharing her and her sister’s story in the hope that people who see her portrait, and those of the other five participants — Caroline Kimsey, Isabel Metcalfe, Joseph Pierce, Kanaska Carter and Krystal Atkinson — will stop for a moment and consider the humanity of those affected by homelessness, addiction and mental health issues. It doesn’t seem like a lot to ask, but simply hearing and understanding these stories is important. Keeping Jordan’s memory alive, Jodi is convinced, will inspire change.
“When I see that poster, I see Jordan,” says Jodi. “I feel her presence more than ever. It’s like she’s looking right at me, reminding me to keep fighting for people like her.”
Visit www.sghottawa.com/faces-of-hope/ or www.thejordanleighfoundation.com for more information.
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