A version of this article originally appeared on ThoroldToday on July 9.
Welland resident Chanda Marie Furney had been together with Jeffrey Kompon for two years when one morning, police raided their home and took Kompon away.
It turned out her boyfriend was a member of El Chapo’s Sinaloa drug cartel.
Nearly eight years later, Furney has written a book about the ordeal, entitled Forever, in the hopes of helping others through their own heartbreak.
“If my book helps someone who is drowning in heartbreak, I feel good about that,” says Furney, in an interview with ThoroldToday.
Born and raised in Thorold, Furney was running a successful breakfast diner in Welland when Kompon walked into her life and whisked her off her feet.
“It was a whirlwind romance,” she says. “He just won me right over. We both fell madly in love. I know it sounds cliché but that is what happened.”
Furney says she never suspected Kompon was involved with the drug cartel because he was just a regular guy. She points out he was a professional magician, and a Canadian darts champion.
“He left every day just as I did to work his business,” she says. “People say to me: ‘How didn’t you know?’ Well, it’s like asking somebody whose partner gambled everything away or had an affair. I didn’t know. There should have been signs but there just wasn’t. That’s why I struggled so much. I was blindsided.”
Kompon was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but maintains his innocence. Furney says she doesn't know who or what to believe.
“The raid literally stopped because they thought they had the wrong house,” she says. “The way he was responding to it, that’s what made me hold on to believe and hope that he was telling the truth. They took him and left. The police wouldn’t allow him to have contact with me. They kept us apart. It wasn’t because we didn’t want to be together but that took its toll on me.”
Moving on was difficult for Furney because she still has so many questions that will likely never have answers.
“I went through so many emotions but the most powerful one was hope,” Furney says. “I wanted to believe him, I had so much to lose that I had to wait and see what happened. We couldn’t be together for many reasons. I don’t know what to believe but I just know it altered our lives.”
To help her through the difficult time, Furney started journaling.
“It was my healing process,” she says. “That’s how it started. It somehow turned into a book and it sat on a shelf for a year. I decided to release it because it’s also an opportunity to tell my side of the story. If you can help one person who is feeling isolated or depressed or suicidal, then it’s worth it.”
Furney says it’s no coincidence she got the writing bug. It was her family who founded Thorold News back in 1939.
“My great-grandparents started the Thorold News and then my grandfather took over,” she says. “I’m going to have to give credit to my grandfather. I think he would be proud of me. Maybe I got a little bit of the writer in me from him.”
Now that the book is out, Furney says a weight has been lifted off her shoulders.
“I’m just doing it to find some peace with it all,” she says. “I’m trying to live with no regrets. I’m following my own moral compass and I dared to write a book and I’m letting God do the rest.”