...and I just heard - via Facebook, of one of our more charming homeless local's unfortunate demise. B*****, met her some 6 or so years ago, just becoming an addict. An abortion she didn't want and no ability to process the trauma.
When I met her she was housed, then soon enough not, always pleasant, usually after a fashion sober - but her habits were probably more nocturnal and done away from the madding crowds and main streets. A victim, one of three, a couple of weeks ago, the "bad batch" the police posted a warning about.
You'd run into her, in the niche in the alley outside my back door, sweeping it out, organizing the trash, pulling weeds, setting up house for a few hours. Notes written on signboards to her. She was pretty and popular.
So to read of her death was a bit of a shock, no obituary, but the street agencies did a celebration of life for her, and the comments on Facebook, almost a hundred, all kind. A decent person laid low by circumstance and trauma.
The other two, I don't know, maybe locals but I've heard nothing, there are so many itinerant homeless on the streets that it's hard to say, did they move on, or did they become statistics? I should start volunteering at the soup kitchen, it would keep me more in the loop...