Ah, this mortal coil! I was speaking to my friend Steve at lunch today and I must say he is very lively for a dead person and looking very good for a corpse. He has been dead for approximately four years at this point, although in our conversation it came out he was not aware of the exact date of his death, not having been there for it. We both agreed that, just as a point of interest, it would be rather out of the ordinary to know what day you died – a tiny Bon Mot to drop into conversation.

People often make assumptions, pretty much of a non-complimentary nature; about how and why someone, or that entire class of someone’s, became homeless. Now being dead is, in my experience anyway, a little radical as a cause or major contributing cause to somebody ending up homeless and on the streets. Nevertheless, there are many more unique stories among those categorized as homeless than pigeonholing this diverse group under the simple label “homeless” suggests to the general public.

To return to Steve’s story: he had migrated westward from his home in Quebec, losing touch with his sister along his journey as they were not close. Hey, was it not for e-mail I would have undoubtedly been incommunicado, family wise, during the worst of my mental struggles and homelessness. So about four years ago, after not hearing from Steve in years, his sister had him declared dead to allow for settling legal matters. Had not fate, in the form of flames, intervened this might have been not a major headache and obstacle, but rather a great conversation piece. If you google Steve Aspin you will find a link to the online archives of the Abbotsford Times and can read the story of the fire that consumed his home (trailer) and all his identification. Without ID you may be alive and kicking, but pretty well as far as government and other institutions are concerned you are a ghost, a non-person, a fabricated falsehood. In this day and age of Identity Theft proving you are who you are can prove extremely challenging, especially for those with the added tribulation of being numbered among the dead.

As I pointed out when I wrote up and e-mailed Steve’s corpsehood difficulties to newspapers, radio and television – to get identification you need identification, a rather frustrating Catch-22 situation to try to resolve. I had hoped someone would have a suggestion or way to overcome this barrier but nothing came of this. Currently Steve’s best hope for resurrection would appear to lie with a teacher from MEI who met Steve through the Redemption Café and is determined to help him obtain identification. Hopefully have some acquaintance with our local MP Mr. Fast will give her a foothold on the towering wall of bureaucracy she must climb to accomplish Steve’s return to life.

So the next time you see a homeless person consider that they may not be homeless because of the reasons you assume. Rather they may have suffered one of the many other ways to slide onto the streets and into the ranks of the homeless. You may even be seeing or standing next to someone who has departed ordinary life in more than the customary sense.