The shelter has been closed right through the Christmas season, due to the weather being not quite extreme enough. Volunteers and staff had stepped forward beforehand offering to be available for shifts Christmas Eve and Christmas day which was heartening. So we were ready. I've been out and about in Richmond almost every day we've been closed and am surprised that I've only encountered two people from the shelter. Both were in a warm dry place over Christmas: the hospital.
"Bud" and "Dave" have a lot in common, aside from sharing a roof over Christmas. They aren't buddies but they know each other from the streets. Both are over fifty and have spent too many of those years abusing alcohol, living the very rough life of a person with no home, broken relationships and ill health.
Beer is their drink of choice and both go for the extra strength (7+% alcohol) varieties, "Bud" choosing a US brand and "Dave" one from Europe. Dave usually keeps an open one in the bottle holder of his bike and sips on it while pedalling the streets in search of empties. Bud keeps his supply in his shopping cart, but his cart mostly contains the empties from what he's consumed. He told us recently he's trying to cut back on his beer consumption, saying he's down from 48 cans per day to 8 cans per day.
Neither is immediately endearing. Bud's a large, rough-featured man, often teetering on the edge of consciousness and barely coherent, so people tend to be intimidated by him. He's not welcome many places and his standard parting words are "sorry for the hassle" but he's never been a hassle at the shelter. He most often sits quietly at a table or crashed out on a mat. Dave's also not welcome many places. He comes across as an ornery, foul-mouthed, in-your-face kind of guy. Despite the rough exteriors and scarred interiors, both are gentle souls, who like to laugh and spend time with a fellow human being.
Bud and Dave were hospitalized a few times this year. Dave was hit by a car while riding his bike and Bud while pushing his cart along the side of a road, twice. Both were also hospitalized for several months this year with long term illnesses. In Bud's case, he had checked into Vancouver detox (there are no detox facilities in Richmond) last January but after a short time he was transferred to St Paul's where he spent several months and apparently was diagnosed with a serious illness of the brain associated with alcohol abuse. We heard he was wait-listed for long term care then, for reasons unclear, he ended up back on the streets of Richmond, back drinking again. He seems to be in a perpetual state of impairment, perhaps the beer, perhaps brain damage.
Bud stayed with us a couple nights again this season and we learned he'd rented a room in a house in Richmond, but he has a hard time locating it. The police drove him round and round one night looking for it but they couldn't find it. When I bumped into him a few days ago, he remembered the street name and knows roughly where it is, but it's such a long walk from where he spends his days that he sometimes just bunks down wherever -- in a covered doorway or sharing a public washroom with another man who calls that place home each night. He was hit by the second vehicle just last week and that landed him in hospital for Christmas.
Dave's been in the hospital since August after a collapse. He's looking better but still unable to walk and needs to be lifted in and out of a wheelchair. I can't imagine him returning to the streets -- he looks so frail. Fortunately, he's wait-listed for a long term care facility in Richmond. A previous time when I visited, I asked if there was anything I could get him. He was very specific with his request: a 3-bladed razor, a large pair of nail clippers and Q-tips and he even gave me directions to the best dollar store to buy them. I was glad he didn't ask for beer.
He's feeling relatively wealthy now as his outreach worker is saving up his CPP cheques for him while he's in the hospital and he received $200 cash for his bike from Cap's cycles. They were storing it for him while in hospital, but sold it after it became clear he probably wouldn't be riding again. They even brought the money to the hospital for him. Dave's a good customer of Cap's and they treat him well. He went through 3 bikes this year -- the first was damaged when he got hit by a car. Cap's repaired his bike for him, knowing Dave couldn't pay them right away, but he did pay once he collected on his ICBC injury claim from the accident. That repaired bike got stolen, and the replacement bike was stolen as well.
The only thing Dave's purchased so far with his loot is a pack of cigarettes, but he hasn't smoked one yet because he doesn't have warm clothes he can wear in the outside smoking area. When I visited him last week to bring him his reactivated cell phone, I asked again if he needed anything and this time he asked for some warm clothes for the outside smoking area and, in a hushed voice, a mickey. I told him I couldn't bring him a mickey and he didn't try to push me. I was hoping a few months of sobriety might have built up some strength to resist the drink. Then again, maybe it has. He's holding a pack of cigarettes and hasn't yet smoked. So maybe he'd resist the booze as well. Or maybe a wee dram now and again wouldn't be so harmful for someone in long term care. Who am I to judge?
No comments:
Post a Comment