Jana Armstrong and her sister made a pact to care for each other’s children should the worst happen. Then it did

Faith Issacs knew her big sister was in terrible trouble a few days before her body was found – because nothing would have kept her from her infant son Sisters Jana Armstrong and Faith Isaacs were supposed to raise their children together. But just a few weeks ago, in the shock of grief, the young mothers made a pact: if one should die before her time, the other would raise her sister’s son. “Just because Jana and I are quite well aware of how unexpected life can be,” Faith says. “And how short life can be.” The agreement was struck around the time of the funeral for Faith’s newborn daughter, Lehara, on 8 June in the regional Queensland city of Toowoomba, where the sisters were born and raised. It fell to Jana to plan the funeral of her baby niece, who died after her mother experienced birth complications. Because she and Faith were inseparable. Because it always fell to Jana. The oldest daughter of four siblings, Jana was a maternal figure in her family even as a child. Cerebral palsy paralysed her mum, Robyn. Her father, Ron, was deaf. Jana used to help Robyn and her wheelchair into the family’s van. She was fluent in sign language. “From the age of seven we wer