ÒBe My Junkie ShadowÓ: An update on the women, eleven years
later
Alisha said she was ready to go, that she had
had enough, and she meant it. The last time I spoke to her, Alisha had
already exited and I was looking into vacant eyes as I asked her questions that
she no longer could comprehend or answer. She died of dementia. RIP
sweet Alisha. Thank you for your contribution.
Angel
Angel died from HIV related symptoms. I
visited her a couple times in ICU in the hospital before she passed. She
was not able to speak yet she squeezed my hand as I spoke to her. She
came to life for a bit and everyone was hopeful that Angel was coming back and
she was as feisty as ever yet it was more like the eye of the storm and within
days she passed. Bless you Angel and thank you for helping me learn to
express love.
Denise, sigh, rest in peace my dear. Her and I became quite close
friends and I had the most hope for her to get out of the hood. She also
had hope and wanted desperately to get back to her sons. She was such a
bright well spoken kind woman. She had cleaned
up, had her teeth worked on, had an operation on her hip, was growing her hair
long and was looking amazing. Yet she relapsed and when someone gets
clean and then uses again their body tolerance changes and her body could not
deal with the amount of drug intake. I was heartbroken to hear of her
passing and I think about her often as her spirit speaks to me.
Josey
Josey and I have been good friends since we met on the street over 10
years ago. Her birthday is May 11th and if I am in the country I like to
take her out to the beach just to get out of the hood and into nature. We
often have a campfire and a couple of beers and even went on a dinghy ride one
time to the island at a special spot I take her to which I call 'girl beach'.
On her 40th birthday I arranged a party for her on the beach
which involved a group of great women friends, guitar and singing, roses
and unicorns (Josey likes unicorns). I wrote
her a song and sang it to her 'Oh Lordy, Josey's turning 40' - she has the lyrics framed on her wall
and has an album of pics from our birthday
celebrations. Josey did not celebrate her birthday
until she was 16, so there is a little bit of making up to do. I have
loads of respect for Josey. She has been part
of a few documentaries that I worked on and also helped me find people who had
stories to tell. I look forward to seeing her when I get back to Canada.
I have learned heaps from Josey
as well as the other women from the hood who taught me unconditional love and
to actually tell someone that you love them as some of these wonderful women
did to me. What a gift. I am so grateful.
Wendy and Bernadette and Nicole
Since I no longer frequent the hood except to
see Josey, I do not know the whereabouts of Wendy or
Bernadette or Nicole. I would love to know how they are doing. I did see
Wendy quite often when I went to the neighbourhood
and really enjoyed meeting and catching up with her. Sometimes I ran into
Bernadette as well. One of her daughters is also living in the hood and
going down a similar path. I hope they are all doing well and wish them
peace, love and hope.