Pennies from Heaven
Arlee woman's crusade honors daughter
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Diana Cote believes her daughter Tasheena Craft sometimes leaves her pennies throughout the day. “Pennies from heaven” is what Cote calls them — small reminders of a young life cut short.
Recently, Cote was at Kinko’s in Missoula making copies of photographs of her daughter. The same smile that graced Tasheena’s face from childhood to 18, when she died, were reprinted to hang from a poster board illustrating her personality.
“She was really fun-loving, caring and she loved to dance — powwow style and contemporary,” Cote, also known as “Weezee” said, wiping away a tear.
As Cote left the store, copies in hand, she looked down and saw four or five pennies.
“I always find a penny every time I get lonely for her,” Cote said.
The man responsible for her daughter’s death sits in prison. Cote doesn’t like to utter his name, but Kelly Birmingham is locked away after receiving a 100-year sentence for brutally killing Tasheena in May 2007.
But even after her daughter’s murder, Cote maintains she does not believe in the death penalty.
“I don’t believe killing people is right,” Cote said, adding she has become an advocate for promoting families and preventing child abuse instead.
“I loved my Tasheena,” Cote shared. “The person who did this could have used the love.”
On Feb. 18, Cote and family held a potluck lunch at the Arlee Community Center, accompanied by the music of the Last Man Standing band playing on stage. Later, there would be games for the children and a round dance. It was the third annual event to celebrate Tasheena’s life.
Groups of people, some with young children, ate at long tables assembled in the gymnasium. The idea of the luncheon was to promote family pride Cote said.
This year the event had several international guests who were recently in town to hold presentations in Missoula examining violence against women.
Itzel Perez Zagal Yarger is originally from Mexico but is in Missoula studying at the University of Montana. A human rights lawyer in Mexico, she is associated with May Our Daughters Return Home, an organization founded by Norma Andrade. In 2001, one of Andrade’s daughters was found murdered, one of the many unsolved killings of young women in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico. Yarger said the number of violent acts against women is so rampant that it has been called “femicide,” a term coined because women are systemically targeted for brutal attacks, sexual violence, mutilation and murder.
Andrade was scheduled to present at the university but missed her flight because an unknown attacker stabbed her. In December, Andrade was shot five times in what authorities called a botched carjacking and she called an attempted homicide.
“It is important to show solidarity (across boarders),” Yarger said. “(And promote) the idea that women deserve to be protected. Women make up 50 percent of the population and are the mothers of the other 50 percent. If you protect women, the whole society will change.”
Yarger and Cote’s meeting happened by chance. Neither woman knew each other until last week, but they share similar life’s work.
After Cote finished copying her daughter’s photos, she ran into an acquaintance from Missoula, who invited her to dinner. At this meal, Cote was introduced to Yarger and a man from Norway who is working for indigenous people’s rights in his country, among others working to stop violence against women. After dinner with them, Cote said because they fed her, it was only right she feed them, and invited them to the potluck.
“We’re all family, one world,” Cote said. “I want to try to help bring the word out that it’s important to love your children.”
She isn’t alone in her pursuit, but surrounded by family and friends, both old and new, including Tasheena — an invisible and powerful force in Cote’s life.
“She was always there with me,” Cote said. “When I saw (the penny) on the road, it was like she was saying, ‘Good job, Mom.’”
