Life on the Street

The collector, the story of one man living on the streets.

The part of the Canada I live in for the most part have very good weather almost year round. We don't get a ton of snow or rain, its never really hot or really cold. These conditions lend themselves to having a large population of street and homeless people.

One such person was the collector, as the stories go he choose to live in the streets but know one ever knew why, the most common story was that he had some sort of mental illness that had gone untreated for years. In the years I knew of him and heard stories about him he would wander the streets cleaning up the city. Always alone, he would pick up anything and everything he could find load it into his carts and then drop it off a various city work sites for it to be properly disposed of.

As the years past by the collector started to get community support people would chat with him on the street or help him with his collecting. People would bring him coffee and food from time to time but he would never take anyone up on their offers for a place to stay.

A couple of years ago he disappeared and no one knew why or where he went, at this point he was probably in he's 70's or 80's. A few of the guys from the city works yard started to search and with the help of police, care works and others they found he had traveled back to Winnipeg to seek medical treatment but unfortunately had passed away.

The city works as well as different people from the community all got together and had a funeral for him back her in Victoria.

Everyone has an impact on everyone, no matter how big or small. Care for each other and acknowledge the contributions the each of us have.

Thanks for reading.

Scott.

For more images and stories - http://www.scottstevensonphotography.ca/