Up and Off the Street … and Very Thankful

Andy is up off the street, in a very nice Air BnB, across town. It’s 2:57 am, and we’re still talking back and forth. I said we need to get you to a welfare office so we can get you an ongoing, stable income. And she replied, “Don’t you worry, Steve. I’m going to be working on securing an income. I’m very independent.” (smile)

And she is.

Do you know she has a B.Sc.? From the University of Toronto, which I went to as well, Canada’s premier university.  (1)

Her father and mother were victims of the residential schools disaster in Canada. Sad, sad story that ripples down through generations, as you can see.

Who has the time, motivation, or vision to grow up with alcoholic parents from the residential-schools experience, get shifted off to foster parents who bleed off and drink your income, and in between it all earn a B.Sc.?  Not me, friend.

Except Andy, like me, took it upon herself to break free from the chaos and catastrophe that she found herself in, complete the self-devastation, and DO something with her life. I can’t wait to see what she’ll do with this fresh start.

A fresh start on her 29th birthday, which was two days ago.

For sure, I’ll want her to be part of the Michaelangelo Fund. Yes, Michael, I get that you have the ability to bring me the people I need. (2)

Andy is the perfect person to help me build a world that works for British Columbia’s aboriginal … excuse me, indigenous population.  … this future employee arrived on my doorstep, like the stork brought her.

This is really healing for me. Twice I’ve been homeless. Once when Mom left Dad. The experience of living in a dreary house for a year or two was depressing. Gradually, gradually we worked our way back. Meanwhile Dad lived in a luxury setting in the best part of town.

Then again, when Dad was 91 and I was looking after him, we had a spat when he spent $50 on soup. I couldn’t keep up with such a level of expenditure.

And I found myself out on the street again.

But never did I have to sleep in a wet tent, with no prospects, and only one other person (Sunny Clark) (3) bringing me coffee.  And I hope I never do.

Andy is also up at this hour and is busy texting me.  I asked her if she’d like to send a thank-you note to the readers. I think she sent me an email…. Yes, indeed, she did. I will step aside….

Thanks to Len Satov who drove me across town with all Andy’s possessions and has helped out in so many other ways.

—> Do consider helping Andy get back on her feet: https://tinyurl.com/jdfhhrvt <—-

Footnotes

(1) My Ph.d thesis in cultural history was refused as “not being historical.” I thought it was groundbreaking! I still do, fifty years later!

I extracted patterns of social behavior from the English-Canadian novels of the late Victorian period. Creative repression (growing by denying oneself) is an example of a behavior pattern. I was writing in an era of creative expression (for instance, the free-love movement of the Sixties and Seventies). What’s not historical about that?

(2)  Archangel Michael: Do not think that you do not have and that we do not have the power to bring you the right people. Or that you do not have, in your own divine authority, the ability to call forth, to create and bring to you those people who are a perfect fit?  (“Transcript ~ Archangel Michael on the Source of Power and Authority, An Hour with an Angel, March 9, 2017,” at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2017/03/18/transcript-archangel-michael-on-the-source-of-power-and-authority-ahwaa-march-9-2017/)

(3) Remember Susan (Sonny) Clark?

Susan Clark at https://www.gofundme.com/u/3188917f-1454-4c95-84ed-3599183308a8