The issues of homelessness, addiction and mental health can sometimes seem overwhelming to the point they are easy to shrug off as too complex or too far removed from our workaday lives for us to think too much about.
Truth be told, upon seeing someone pushing a cart of belongings down the street or muttering outside the grocery store, many of us look away or quicken our steps.
We are lucky in Squamish to have organizations that offer the support with dignity everyone deserves.
But compassion and understanding is not just the job of dedicated groups.
It is the job of us all.
Each person who struggles has a story worth hearing, if we just take the time to listen.
It has been almost 10 months since Squamish’s David Thomas John Miller — TJ to his family and friends — died in an explosion in his tent.
It was cold that Jan. 21 and speculation is he was trying to get warm.
The incident made headlines, but there was so much more to TJ than the story of his death revealed.
TJ was born Jan. 26, 1983, the youngest of three.
“He was always so gentle, easygoing. I could dress him up in dresses, con him into playing Barbies with me,” his big sister Kim told The Chief.
The pair created cities in their yard together for TJ’s Dinky cars, using all their mom’s kitchen spoons.
TJ loved music that told a story, was sensitive, generous to a fault, and loyal, his family says. When he was in Kindergarten, he took on a bully who had been picking on his older sister and brother.
As a teen, TJ loved to cook and eventually worked in a five star restaurant.
But as he got older, he started to hear voices.
Eventually, “every minute of every day, horrible, horrible voices screamed at him. Constantly. Relentlessly. And he would try so hard to stay happy, kind and laughing through it all,” Kim recalled.
Though TJ didn’t have a permanent address at the time of his death, he had a family who loved him and would have welcomed him home. He was sleeping outside in the winter because he couldn’t bear to be inside, according to Kim.
Perhaps the voices were louder indoors.
Though their family has always been close, and remains so, TJ’s death has left a gaping hole in his family. His mom has lost her baby boy.
Kim misses her best friend, her children miss their uncle.
When we see people in Squamish who are struggling, let us pause and think of TJ and the family who loved him. And maybe call up Squamish Helping Hands (604-815-4984) to see how you can help and get to know those neighbours you may have overlooked. Tell them TJ sent you.
