Stoic 13-year-old praises slain mom during tribute

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005 | 11:07 a.m.

Thirteen-year-old stabbing victim Shiloh Edsitty spoke from his heart to more than 50 people who came to a chapel to pay tribute to his dead mother, Teresa Tilden, and to show support for the boy.

Shiloh could not attend his mother's funeral last year because he was still recovering from the wounds suffered during a Nov. 8 attack.

"I really love her and miss her very much," Shiloh said at Central Christian Church Tuesday night in Henderson.

"Mom wanted me to have the greatest life even though she didn't have one," the boy said. "I'm glad I lived with her for two years until that day."

"That day" was the day he he was stabbed six times and taken to University Medical Center with a 10-inch butcher knife stuck in his chest.

During the attack, which left his mother dead, Edsitty suffered a severed liver, sliced carotid artery and punctured intestine. He also had to have his gall bladder removed.

James Menor Valdez, 29, was arrested the day of the attack and charged with murder, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Valdez is in custody at the Clark County Detention Center pending trial.

Asked if he felt special as friends, family and strangers sang, prayed and listened to him, Shiloh sighed and said, "I would rather be normal."

Shiloh said it took him about an hour to write his mother's tribute. "C'mon, it's about my mom," he explained, smiling shyly.

At the tribute, Shiloh said, "I learned more than I really thought I knew (about my mother)," he said. "I had a good time with her and some bad times."

Vivian Powell, a college professor and foster mother to him, cried as she talked about the years Shiloh spent with her family in St. George, Utah, and then New York when Tilden could not care for him as a single mother.

"I loved Teresa for her smile," Powell said. "Shiloh has the same smile and every time he smiles it truly brings joy to our hearts."

Powell, who is in court seeking permanent guardianship of Shiloh, called him "a miracle child" for surviving the attack.

"I know God spared his life for a special purpose that will unfold," Powell said.

Shiloh was born in St. George, Utah, while Tilden attended a private school for Native Americans. It was there she met Powell, her teacher. Tilden asked for Powell's help when Shiloh was 5 months old and single motherhood took its toll.

Maelena Joy Fisher Godios, Shiloh's foster sister, said that she rebelled until she met Tilden and stayed with her in Las Vegas.

"She was not a blood sister, but a sister out of love," Godios said. "No matter what happened in her life, she always kept Shiloh safe."

Ronald Hatch, founder of the Raindancer Youth Services school in St. George, gave Shiloh an eagle feather to honor the boy's courage.

"I come here tonight to speak words of iron. I can speak them because I lived them," Hatch said, recalling how his mother abandoned him when he was 5 years old and how a white family -- "pale faces" -- saved his life after he foraged for food at hog farms and stayed in a series of orphanages.

"It is time to put tragedy to rest, it is time to forgive," Hatch said. Tilden was his first foster child, one of 25 young girls he cared for in the past 30 years.

The tribute to Tilden unfolded in English, Navajo, Cherokee and Lakota Sioux.

Linda Gray, president of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Las Vegas who attended the service, said she learned of Shiloh from a newspaper photograph.

"I looked at his face and heard his voice say, 'Help me, I'm Navajo,' " Gray said. She said Native American prayers.

Kevin and Kathy Van Gilder had taken Tilden in as a foster child in St. George. Tilden had endured life on the streets, in juvenile detention facilities and as a runaway.

"Right up to the very end, as she struggled with her assailant, she told Shiloh the steps to take to keep him safe," Kevin Van Gilder said. "Her last act on this Earth, her last breath was expressing love for her son."

Steve Rainbolt of Las Vegas came to the Tilden tribute to give Shiloh a hand-carved Cherokee walking stick given to him by a friend and that he had kept for 30 years.

"He was so courageous, I decided to give him this staff of courage," Rainbolt said of the walking stick with a carved face, black and red felt for a handle.

Pastor Ray Giunta gave Shiloh a pin spelling the Hebrew word for remembrance.

"I was called to his bedside after the incident," Giunta said. He became the boy's grief counselor. "He's a remarkable little boy," Giunta said. "He has his faith and his family. I told Shiloh that I've journeyed this path before."

Giunta said his own mother had abandoned him and he grew up in an orphanage in Trenton, N.J.

Blake Moore, 13, also in attendance at the memorial, met Shiloh while playing football with the Tarheels team last year.

"He's a pretty nice kid," Moore said.