The Child Psychotherapy Foundation was established in 1997 by members of the Canadian Association of Psychoanalytic Child Therapists. We were all being approached regularly by teachers, social workers and psychiatrists to treat very disturbed and damaged children whose families had little or no money and were unable to afford treatment! At the same time, our training program, the Toronto Child Psychoanalytic Program had candidates with little or no money, no office space, and a requirement to treat children three times per week. Government health plans cover the cost of therapy within hospitals and mental health institutions but don't fund non-medical private treatment. Moreover, there is virtually no intensive or long-term psychotherapy available from publicly funded sources.

Our solution to this dilemma was to develop a charitable organization that would solicit funds from corporate sponsors to support intensive, long-term psychotherapy within a child's school environment. Treating children at school is, of course, considerably less disruptive to their day and also allows therapists to provide support and consultation to beleaguered teachers.

Finding money was difficult and slow process. We discovered that foundations and individuals like to purchase things - computers, books and furnishings - rather than support activities, especially a strange, uncertain activity called "psychoanalytic psychotherapy." We managed to treat seven to nine children per year for the first three years and dreamt of doing a large, longitudinal study proving the efficacy of intensive psychotherapy for traumatized children, thereby securing government funding for all such children - forever.

Unbeknownst to us, in 1998, a man named Charles Gordon Black contacted the training program and inquired about making a donation. Since the training program could not provide a charitable receipt, Mr. Black was encouraged to contribute to the Child Psychotherapy Foundation that we had established one year earlier. Sometime later a gentleman, who turned out to be Mr. Black, requested funding information from the Foundation's administrative co-ordinator and sent a cheque for $30.00 in response to the information. Our co-ordinator, a very warm and skilful person, treated Mr. Black as if he had given a million dollars.

Two years later, I received a letter from an accountant in a small town in British Columbia saying that he had an elderly gentleman who was interested in making a bequest and wanted to know if we accepted donations in the form of stocks and bonds. I was prepared to receive stocks, bonds, jewelry and cash, but thought I'd best check with our lawyer who assured me that such bequests were legal and common. My letter, agreeing to accept the bequest, was received on a Friday. The Will was signed over that weekend, just before Mr. Black, the contributor, had sadly slipped into a coma and died the following Tuesday.

Imagine our surprise and delight when we got word that, with the exception of a few small bequests, Mr. Black had left his entire estate to the Child Psychotherapy Foundation to, "assist or benefit physically or psychologically abused or suffering children in such manner as the Child Psychotherapy Foundation of Canada sees fit." We were to receive 1.5 Million Dollars!!!

We brought Milda, Mr. Black's widow, to Toronto when the Endowment Agreement was finally signed and she filled us in on the entire story. Her beloved Gordon had been a very shy, if not reclusive, man. Milda had come to Toronto after the Second World War where she met Gordon almost immediately. They went skiing, hiking and camping for 15 years, but Gordon didn't seem to be getting any closer to "popping the question." Sadly, Milda decided there was to be no future with Gordon and she moved to the US to be near her family and to get over the love of her life. Gordon missed Milda terribly and decided that he needed help so he sought treatment and underwent an analysis for a number of years in Toronto.

In 1985, Milda received a message from an unknown person seeking her whereabouts. She responded and discovered that it was Gordon, who had moved from Toronto to British Columbia. They resumed their relationship on the west coast, frequently traveling between the US and Canada. Finally, in 1993, 41 years after their first meeting, Gordon asked Milda to marry him. . . and she did. . . in a Las Vegas chapel.

Milda told us repeatedly that Gordon loved psychoanalysis. He felt his life had been changed in the most wonderful way through his psychoanalytic experience and he believed that, had he had an analysis as a child, the course of his life would have been quite different.

Milda said that she had no idea Gordon had more than very limited resources since he lived an extremely frugal life. There was one moment when she suspected Gordon might have a little money put away. That was two years before he died when he suggested that they buy a house. Milda told him, "Gordon, we're at an age when people sell houses, not buy houses."

The stocks that make up the bulk of Mr. Black's estate are bank stocks, purchased by his father sometime before 1950. Gordon never touched a penny of the inheritance from his father and the value of those stocks kept growing until Gordon's death, when they were valued at $1.7 million.

As an ironic post-script to this strange, wonderful and tragic tale, Mrs. Black was scheduled to leave Toronto, following our announcement and celebration of the gift, and return to the US on the morning of September 11, 2001. She arrived at the airport at 10:00 a.m., just as the second tower was collapsing. She was forced to remain in Toronto for eight days until we could get her a flight back to the States. Milda took it in stride, of course, just as she had taken so much of her life in stride. She is a very patient woman.

Janet Morrison
President
Child Psychotherapy Foundation of Canada