Deceased.

Finding out that someone has passed away by seeing “deceased” on mail returned to work, is not the best way.

She was an amazing woman; I saw her weekly for almost ten years when I volunteered at the LBH&H (Vancouver’s Jewish old folks home). She asked to be my “West Coast Bubbe” (my paternal grandmother died a couple years after I met her; my remaining two bubbes were in Montreal and Florida). She was one of the small group of women who decided that I could not fully live life without learning to play a wicked game of bridge; they wouldn’t let me go home after my volunteer shift ended until I’d played a full couple hours’ with them. She had wonderful stories, a big smile, and gave great hugs.

I know she lived a long, happy life… And that she’s missed by many loved ones.

Drinks for the homeless

An Ottawa homeless shelter offers drinks of homeless alcoholics… and the study’s results were quite positive: participants at the shelter’s program drank much less, had fewer trips to the ER, and had fewer “encounters” with police.

Others question the reasoning behind the program.“If this works for alcoholism and you can keep your streets cleaner and safer, then what is stopping you from doing it for cocaine addicts or crystal meth people?” asked Brian Venables, with the Salvation Army.

Um, it’s called Vancouver’s Four Pillars program, and, yes, it includes shooting galleries where drug addicts can shoot their drugs with clean needles, under the supervision of healthcare workers.