Josie Angeline (Angel) Malcolm

Josie Angeline Malcolm “Angel” was born August 21, 1990 in San Diego, California. After 2 years, her birth mother Samantha, realizing she could not provide the life she wanted for her Angel, made the painful decision to arrange an adoption.            

Josie Angel came to live with Judy Malcolm in Visalia 2 weeks before Christmas, 1992, and they moved to Shell Beach in 1996. Angel was welcomed into, and deeply loved by her new family. She attended Greenhouse Montessori School in Visalia, started 1st grade at Shell Beach Elementary, and went on to Judkins Middle School and Arroyo Grande High. She always made friends easily. As a little girl, she took ballet and gymnastics classes and was especially dedicated to learning to roller skate. She loved her pets, both dogs and cats, and considered them part of the family. Angel delighted in drawing and writing, and used them eloquently to express her love and playfulness throughout her life. She was part of First Day School at Visalia Friends Meeting and then at Central Coast Friends Meeting, and attended several sessions of Pacific Yearly Meeting. Angel got her first job, at 16, in retail customer service at a shop in downtown Pismo Beach. She was a hard worker and had a knack for making people feel taken care of. Over the years, she had several jobs in the customer service field, in retail, food service, and online environments.                

Shortly after graduation in 2008, Angel survived a car accident in which her best friend died. This huge loss was something Angel carried with her the rest of her life.

After high school, Angel reconnected with Samantha, her birth mom, and later had the chance to meet Julianne, one of her sisters. Samantha and Julianne drove from Las Vegas to see Angel at Arroyo Grande Hospital in November 2016, when she was first diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Angel delighted in the physical resemblances, and always knew she was loved and accepted by her blood family.

Angel suffered from the disease of addiction and had many struggles in her short life. During periods of recovery, she made lifelong friends. She had a unique and powerful ability to tell her truth. She was helped by Casa Solana, Gryphon Sober Living, Crash Rehab (in San Diego) and many friends along the way.                    

How do you put into words how her smile could light up your world, and her zest for life and joyful spirit glowed in her eyes?                    

Angel died August 30, 2017 of respiratory failure and congestive heart failure, caused by polysubstance use, nine days after her 27th birthday. Her mother, Judy, was by her side. She was preceded in death by her grandparents David Malcolm and Virginia Flanagan, and her godfather Glenn Frantz. She is survived by her adoptive family: mother Judy Malcolm, aunts and uncles Bonnie Malcolm, River Malcolm and Chris Downing, Scott Malcolm and Carol Engel, Bob and Madeline Flanagan, cousins Annmarie Hurd, Elliot Malcolm, Matthew, Gabriel, and Rebecca Flanagan; by her biological family: mother, Samantha Beaudoin and siblings Julianne, Alex and Michelle McPhail; and by her large family of friends, her brothers and sisters both in recovery and in survival on the streets.    

Finally, in Angel’s own words (from her Facebook post on her birthday), “Please everyone have a blessed day and reach out to someone you necessarily wouldn’t or do a random act of kindness for me.”