As you all know many volunteers from this community build a little insulated place for a homeless girl named Fred.
I don’t go by to see her anymore because I find that she gets agitated and this in turn agitates me. Also, there are not many donations that are coming in, and as I explained a few months ago to readers here and to her, I cannot possibly support her. I simply don’t have enough income. This said, I worry about her from a distance, which I suppose does not do either of us any good at all. The good news is that there is a cafe that is about ten blocks from her, where people can go a get $5 worth of free food – a sandwich and a coffee…. multiple times a day if needed. The cafe 541 has a button program in which people can donate money for buttons and then the buttons are currency for those who don’t have money. It is all very tidy. The place is great and the food is good.
Another update is that a few weeks ago, I learned that Fred broke her door and I am grateful to the community member who fixed this for her. Thank you!
Earlier this year, You may recall, that I heard from the folks who run the tiny house Jamboree in Quebec and they promised that they would ask those who came to donate candles for Fred. Unfortunately… they forgot… so I can’t count on this to heat up her place.
One of the community members asked me about the Jamboree and I thought he was one of the organizers (which he was not) but still, he sent a gift card back in August for me to pick up candles for her. $100. So nice! Right? Anyway, it has been a decent fall and now in mid November it is still warm… BUT, it is supposed to get cold this weekend. So the time arrived and I pulled out Christoper’s card and went to the Wal-Mart to pick up the candles that she likes to use to heat her place as well as four large glass jar candles that she likes for ambient light and a little heat too.
Thanks again to the door repair person and also to Christopher.
She will be safe and warm now thanks to both of you.
Tiny House Ontario 
I was glad to help. It’s funny how little things in our past affect actions we take today. In my late teens I used to sneak out of my basement bedroom (Where I could make noise and not bug my parents) and get onto a bus that took 1 ½ hours to get to the last subway station in Toronto’s west end, where I would gather up my loose change, hop on the subway just to spend time in the big city that fascinated me so. I did this for 2 years until I got caught and was shamed into stopping. But on one of those nights I missed my last subway and was stuck in the big city, in February, in the bitter cold and I had just been kicked out of Union Station for loitering. I ended up sleeping under the Gardiner Expressway until 6am when the first subway would start back up, then the bus and finally reach home a long 3 hours later. I remember how cold I was, shivering at first, then truly freezing but too proud to call home and ask for help. What I could have done for a candle that night. That’s why I gave…Fred was me. But for Fred it’s everyday. Laura’s request was truly from her heart… I got that.
You are surely right about that. It is every day, and for her there are not really any other good options. I wish that I could of placed the house in a location where there is an outlet. An outlet would mean I could buy her a hundred dollar heater and a lamp and this would take most of the worries away.
I would love to be able to build a hundred of these (but with an outlet) because for people like Fred who can’t live with others, there is nothing.
Oh so glad that she’s still doing ok!
I had the chance to show up to volunteer for one of the build days, and I often wonder how she is.
Reblogged this on Tiny Cabin On The Move and commented:
People taking care of each other… a good thought for a rainy Saturday.
Fred – how old is this woman. I went through nursing with a girl her name was Fredricka but she got lost somewhere along life’s way. Wondering if it is her?
It won’t be her. Her name is not Fredricka.