December 23, 2022 Deep freeze continues

It’s cold enough to freeze a person’s toes right off their feet. That’s what happened to Jim. Mary didn’t want it to happen to her. So she grabbed another piece of the broken chair and threw it on the fire. Snowflakes drifted down and coated her with another layer of white. Only to melt and turn to ice.

At least Jim was in the hospital and getting help. At least Jim was warm.

But what would Mary do to make it through the night? She knew she wouldn’t sleep. Others came and stood by the fire. Ralph and Jack wandered over and did a little dance to keep warm. Mary couldn’t remember the temperature in Kelowna ever getting this cold. And for days on end. 

She was scared. Mary was afraid she wouldn’t wake up if she did go to sleep. Flashing lights lit the air in the distance and she wondered if it was another ambulance coming for her friends. A friend was a loose term to use on the streets these days. Everyone had to watch out for themselves as the temperature hovered at minus 25 degrees Celcius. 

The fire department came earlier in the night but she could tell they didn’t have the heart to tell them to put out the fire. A fire that stood between freezing cold and numbing reality.

Whatever happened to global warming anyway?

She couldn’t imagine what life would be like if she lost any of her toes or her fingers. Thank god for the people at the Gospel Mission. They gave her a pair of boots someone donated. Her feet were cold but at least she didn’t think she’d end up like Jim, hobbled for life. Still, her hands were numb and her body shook with a chill that carved itself into her bones. 

She stood as close to the fire as she could. The path system she was on was filled with tents and some lucky people managed to find heaters and huddled around them inside the tents. But they were literally playing with fire if the gas got too strong or the tent lit up from the heat being too close. They could lose more than a few toes. Some have suffered serious injuries. Her buddy George had a butane stove explode in his face and suffered severe burns to his face and hands. Tough choices, to freeze or burn…

She preferred to take her chances huddled around the raging blaze. There were as many as twenty people crouched around the fire and they found anything that would burn to throw on it. At one point someone found some pallets and threw them on. When the blaze roared into the night they all stood as close as they dared to the dancing flames. 

Mary stared into the fire, a tear welled up in her eye. She longed for warmer days, for better times. She longed for her past life before the accident, before the addiction to painkillers took over and she lost everything. She thought about her friend Jim, warm in the hospital bed. But Jim’s life would get worse without his toes, it was a high price to pay for a warm bed. A price Mary didn’t want to pay. 

So she danced around the fire and kept herself awake. She kept telling herself that the cold couldn’t last forever. She kept thinking warm thoughts. Thoughts about a summer day to come and thoughts about heat waves in the past. She would never complain about the weather being too hot again. 

She would survive. She would make it through the night and wait for warmer days again. She had no choice.

*** 

There are so many homeless people living on our streets it saddens me. It also makes me appreciate what I have. I know I have told the story of the homeless a few times but I read about a homeless man who lost nine toes to the freezing cold in the last two days and it made me think.

If our government can give away billions of dollars to deal with a pandemic. And it can give billions to corporations to prop them up and keep them in business, why can’t it do more to help those who are living on the streets in these frigid times? 

Because these people are the forgotten ones.

If you live in Kelowna go drive down Leon avenue for a reminder of the way many people are forced to live. If you are in Vancouver try Hastings Street. In Calgary, it is many parts of the downtown and in the shadow of the Saddledome. These are people’s sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. Most have reached this place from bad luck and bad decisions. And the cost of housing continues to skyrocket so that more people will be forced to join them on the fringes of society. 

All we can do as individuals is to give back where we can. Put a few dollars in the Sally-Ann pot, and donate to the food bank. Give what you can to help those in need. I have donated a few dollars here and there and wish I could do more. Karma, God, Allah, Buddha, The Great Spirit whatever you believe will reward your generosity.