Fire-Hot Aunt #11

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I looked up over the top of his head to the dance floor, rather envious that I was not able to participate! The townships that experienced the highest number of illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2021 were Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria. So it twas, that on an early, misting Saturday Morn, our entourage left for the long trog to make it in time for the noon wedding. Then dinner was announced, and as We made way to our seating, the lad totally escaped my mind… till now..

By health authority, in 2021, the highest numbers of illicit drug toxicity deaths were in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health authorities (765 and 615 deaths, respectively), making up 62% of all such deaths during this period.Said Lad, whose fingers were doing more touching than just tagging the fancy dress of his fetchingly attired playmate.

My mind was a mass of whirling thoughts as we walked out of the venue an onto the smoggy street. I suggested we continue to walk, I needed the time to clear my head for a proper think...

28.

And so, with a rather lustfully smouldering fuse lit, making any additional need of persuasion moot, off he scurried! Today’s release of the report on drug toxicity deaths for the month of July 2023 by the BC Coroners Service is a stark reminder that the ongoing toxic-drug crisis continues to have a devastating impact on communities across our province. We hold in our hearts the memories of the 198 people lost in July in British Columbia.

Solving problems associated with homelessness is a huge challenge. We can start with housing, but that alone is not nearly enough. Many of the people living in the hotels and park are drug users. Many are mentally ill. Some are both. It takes money – and lots of it – to provide decent housing and supports for this segment of society. In a few minutes the pair of them were on the wooden dance floor, once again looking exceptionally cute as a couple, as they danced to a rather preferable romantic slow tune whose name has slipped my mind, so focused was I on my mischievous endeavor being carried out ! As I watched her scamper off, I again eyed the lad, who also seemed keen on also scampering off after her. Among the Drunk Uncles and Coastal Grandmothers, another identity group is waving their wine glasses in the air, sloshing Franzia, demanding recognition: The Messy Hot Aunt contingent. I could not believe what was happening, of course I would love to dress in the pretty clothes and they were not going to mind at all let alone laugh at me. I had a perfect excuse supplied to me as I saw it.

With my new hairstyle I looked very feminine and I could easily be the younger sister of Sue. On our way to bed aunt gave me a nightie to wear and some cream to rub on in the morning before I had my shower to tidy up any unwanted hair I had. The richest of societies should be especially judged by how they treat their least fortunate, and Vancouver has its challenge set out for the foreseeable future.

That story pretty much sums up the city’s attitude toward the Downtown Eastside over the past few decades. Taking sips of my current old fashion, I had been watching with mesmerized interest, the Bride’s Mother. She was a rather attractive lady, young for her age, who was wearing a rather fetching gown of sleek blue ruffling satin that flowed jauntily along her figure, swishing and swaying in a most delightful manner. We went to the exit, and as I helped her on with her faux mink wrap I looked over her shoulder for the grandmother and my touchy lad. They were still dancing. And the thorny issue that had me fleeing into the night, was still , well, an issue !! It looked like I was going to just make it out before....

The fringes of Vancouver’s Chinatown have always been the centre of Canada’s opiate trade. Ever more potent and easily smuggled versions emerged through the decades, culminating in the scourge of synthetic opiates — fentanyl and carfentanil — thousands of times more powerful and many times more deadly than opium. In recent years, the area is seeing an east creeping gentrification. This is causing the DTES street population to be squeezed into a smaller footprint resulting in more confrontation and the appearance of a worsening situation even though overall the numbers of street people remains fairly constant. That meant the housing didn’t go to the chronically homeless and the most in need, but worse, it then allowed landlords in the residential hotels to do renovations, raise rents, or refuse new low-income tenants once the former tenants were relocated to social housing. The next day we seemed to just continue as though nothing had happened. I dressed in a soft white cotton blouse a full navy blue skirt and white petticoat. I did my hair and makeup. I was getting well practised with my hair and makeup and was looking better. The makeup was very natural and not too much for a girl my age. He was marrying a rather affluent young Lass he had hitched up with from Wrexham way, and it was in that city, several hours away, that the couple decided to tie the knot, dragging his family, and us I might add, all along with him to travel there.