Andy, Jupiter, and their rather chilly home
Nov. 6, 1:00 PM
The Aboiginal society has not been able to find shelter for Andy, mostly because their places are not pet friendly.
The expected rainstorm has started and now we’re focused on just getting her out pf the rain. The only one we can think of to turn to are Air Bnb’s. So here I go booking one.
Nov. 6, 10:30 am.
Thanks to Lavonne, Marjorie, Thomas, Jennifer, Audrey, and Stephen for also participating in Andy’s rescue. Our totals are $700 from outside Go-Fund-Me (GFM) and $800 from GFM itself, climbing steadily.
I wanted to show the neighbors that Andy was being taken care of and to show that to Andy as well, so I resolved to make her breakfast and take it down to her. But before I could do that, her Aboriginal society team showed up and whisked her and Jupiter off to their office. As I munch on her intended breakfast, I hope to hear from her this afternoon that she has been found at least temporary shelter. From there we can plan the next move.
Nov. 6, 7 am.
Rainy, cold night and all I can think of is Andi out there, exposed to it. Given the life of abuse she’s related to me, I don’t even know why she hangs on. I’d ask Michael to take me home. This will be for her, I’m certain, a life-changing experience from which she will emerge, I predict, an advocate for emergency housing and services. Especially for Indigenous folks and people with pets (who are often not taken in).
A short time before the Reval and the beginning of a humanitarian-philanthropic shift in career, I can’t think of a better crash course for me in what people, and Indigenous people especially, go through just to live, just to get by. I won’t forget what I’ve learned.
Coordinating most things is difficult. She has an out-of-province phone provider so it’d be long-distance for her to even make calls on her phone. Which means I lend her mine and then I’m out of phone contact for portions of the day. Yikes!
Moreover, someone has to be in attendance at her tent at all times so that no one steals her possessions – if they can get past her guard dog! The dog, I think, is not there to repel an invader as much as to protect her against her abusive father should he ever find her. (He lives 700 miles away from here. And he has threatened to kill her dog.)
I am doing her Safeway, drugstore, and pet store shopping and fetching her meals, which she insists on paying for from your gifted funds. She really is slow moving with her arthritis. For her to go fetch is both a lengthy process and awkward for her.
With all that, she’s eternally pleasant.
I saw my first patch of discrimination yesterday. When I was walking away from her tent, two elderly ladies stopped me and asked me if I knew “the man” in the tent.
And I said, “Andy? Yes, she’s a 28-year-old woman who is fleeing domestic abuse and some of us in the neighborhood are helping her find accommodations.” They looked shocked and said they had reported “him” to the police and the police are sending a social worker.
I said we’re also working through an aboriginal society to meet her needs. “Oh, is she an Indian?” Yes, she is. She replied with some variation on harumph and left.
Wow. sad, sad.
We raised $700 outside of Go-Fund-Me and $340 from Go-Fund-Me itself, thanks to Diane, Anjali, and Karen. Thanks to my West End neighbors who have also responded with contributions and research! Why is it always women who donate to a cause like this? Where are the men? Keep up our side, guys!
We were unable to find shelter today but have prospects lined up for tomorrow. A severe rainstorm is approaching. We need Andy indoors before its arrival.
I have opened a Go-Fund-Me for Andy: https://gofund.me/cf815fb42 . I have some precious metals that I plan to cash in today and donate to her (Done). I don’t see many homeless people down by English Bay. The world has just come to my doorstep.
If that URL does not get you to the right page, here’s a shortcut to the Donations Page: https://tinyurl.com/2vy8s8m3
Please let me know if you have any difficulty.
People are responding – with suggestions, making informational calls to local shelters for me, and sending donations. We are … OK, OK … I am going to nail this one. I have a list of places to call and will be doing so tomorrow. (Make that asap. I have so many other things to do now.)
I have an emergency in the Vancouver area.
Andy Stewart (not her real name), a native woman from Alberta, has fled a situation of domestic violence and come to Vancouver for shelter. She has parked herself in the park in front of me, in a tent.
She’s 28, very pleasant, has arthritis, and walks (ably) with a cane (I had arthritis). She has a pitbull for a pet, who is very friendly unless you get violent with her (I assume). I became his friend the first day I met him. Treats help.
She has a tent and a sleeping bag, a chair and other items that we in the neighborhood or her rescue team have donated to her. It isn’t that someone in a place to help her may not show up eventually. It’s that it’s so cold, a heavy rainstorm is predicted for the weekend, and organizations can move so slowly. She could die out there in the cold some time before organizational help arrived.
We have leads. The police said they’d send a social worker.
And going to the press right now might antagonize her only organizational friends.
I asked the building owner about taking Andy in, but he will not allow her dog in the building. (If she gets much colder, I’m going to sleep out there with her dog so she can sleep in here.)
I’m furnishing her with whatever I have, including money. To be without money in this situation must multiply its effect beyond belief. Homelessness is bad enough but not having money to boot must be next to a life not worth living. You’re just waiting to kick it.
If there is anyone in the Vancouver area who can take a person in her situation in, I’d be eternally grateful. I know they will be rewarded as I have been when I sheltered someone in her situation. We became lifelong friends.
The situation would be ideal for an older person who wants companionship or who needs assistance or supervision.
I’d have to ask Andy, but she might accept shelter on Vancouver Island (say, on a farm) or outlying Greater Vancouver areas.
Being abandoned in the cold overnight must be the ultimate sobering experience. Facing that as a future is too much to ask of anybody.
I can’t sleep with this situation happening on my doorstep and having nothing I can do about it. And not knowing who to turn to who will act immediately.
If I’m not writing copiously at this moment, it’s because I’m sitting outside a tent across the street for an hour, without Internet service, while Andy shops, washes, etc.
Or weeping in my apartment, remembering how me, Paul, and my Mother were in exactly Andy’s situation when Mom fled Dad’s violence in 1963.
And a kind soul took us in.
It’s this memory that is energizing me now.
If you can help, please email me at the blog: [email protected]. Any help is greatly appreciated. I know. We’ve already appealed. But this is an emergency and they don’t care about time.
