GOOD BYE DOMINICK EDEN!!!!! YOU'LL BE MISSED!!!!

Picture 073, originally uploaded by Oldmaison.

I very sad to learn that Dominick Eden passed away after a long illness with Cancer.

He was just a young man. He was 42 years old.

I might add that we did have something in common in Saint John.

We both arrive in the Loyalist City in the late 80s and made our names known in our little ways.

Myself? I wasn’t like Dominick I was involved in different issues by writing letters to the editor.

Dominick also wrote many letters to the editor and he found a place on Horsfield Street.

He wanted to make the South End in Saint John a better place to live so he joined Lloyd Betts another activists for the South End < he passed away a few
years ago >

I bumped into these two individuals and I would find out that Lloyd was very outspoken with his views but

Dominick was the quiet type. Dominick was more reserve in his views.

Both of these individuals ran for Council over and over but never won.

A few years back, I decided that I would run for the school board.

This would be a great way to bring the issue of Ritalin to the bureaucrats in the Capital.

I would tell the board that we need to act on this issue immediately.

I went to picked up some papers minutes before the deadline came and guess who came walking through the doors?

Dominick himself. I quickly said- So? You’re going to try your luck for Council again???

He told me that you can’t win if you don’t try.



Trying he did and lost he did also but he made it very clear that we need a ward system in Saint John for people like himself would have a little chance to get elected.

This was the very last time that I saw Dominick.

I decided not to make a run for the school board.

I guess that I’m a coward compared to Dominick.

During the past summer, I heard that he was very sick and I would have love to see my follow activist again but I guess that I’ll have to wait.

Once I found out about his death?

I quickly wrote in a blog that I wanted a picture of Dominick.

Someone sent me this picture.



I wrote back asking- Who’s that????

Sure wasn’t the same individual that I got to know in the mid 90s?



Well? Dominick is gone and he did leave his mark in the South end in Saint John.

I believe they should change the name of the street from Horsfield Street to Edden Lane or Dominick Street.

My god? There’s a lot of young people dying lately from Cancer.

Little John, the young Priest Father Thivierge and now this?



Yes, life is indeed a short ride. You better enjoy it while you’re around.

I feel that God's minute should be in this little blog.

IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS, HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO
FORGIVE US OUR SINS AND TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL
UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
( 1 JOHN 1:9 )

Dear Charles,
For our "Out of the mouths of Babe's" category, I received
the following story this week. So let us set back and listen
to a 6 year old child as she teaches us a valuable lesson.
I hope you will enjoy this, and pause a moment to think about
it as well.

Subject: A wonderful meaning of Rain

Rain: One rainy afternoon I was driving along one of the main
streets of town, taking those extra precautions necessary when
the roads are wet and slick.

Suddenly, my daughter, Aspen, spoke up from her relaxed
position in her seat. "Dad, I'm thinking of something." This
announcement usually meant she had been pondering some
fact for a while, and was now ready to expound all that her
six-year-old mind had discovered. I was eager to hear.

"What are you thinking?" I asked.

"The rain! ;" she began, "is like sin, and the windshield wipers
are like God wiping our sins away.

After the chill bumps raced up my arms I was able to respond.
"That's really good, Aspen." Then my curiosity broke in. How far
would this little girl take this revelation? So I asked... "Do you
notice how the rain keeps on coming?

What does that tell you?"

Aspen didn't hesitate one moment with her answer: "We keep
on sinning, and God just keeps on forgiving us."

I will always remember this whenever I turn my wipers on.
After all, In order to see the rainbow, you must first endure
some rain. Amen.

With My Love & Prayers,
your servant Allen

Here’s a story that was printed in the Irving’s Paper a few days ago.

My deepest sympathy to his loving family.





Good Bye my fellow activist.



document.write(CETransPubCode("TP Saint John")); NB
Telegraph-Journal | Saint John
As published on page B1/B2 on February 15, 2006

Mayor of Horsfield, Dominick Eden dies
(File/Telegraph-Journal)
Dominick Eden, known as the Mayor of Horsfield Street,
died Monday. Seen here on the steps of his home in
July, 2005, Mr. Eden bought his first property on the
South End street by scraping together what was left of
his student loan.

By Grant Kerr
Telegraph-Journal

Dominick Eden was all about the city.

Although born and raised in Toronto, Mr. Eden had
Saint John running through his veins, despite lacking
any bloodlines to his adopted home. He was most
comfortable in his uptown neighbourhood, where he was
known as the Mayor of Horsfield Street. It was a
handle that was stuck on him derisively, but Mr. Eden
wore the sobriquet proudly. He wasn't one to listen to
the naysayers.



Forever clad in a pair of tatty tan coveralls, Mr.
Eden took a drug-riddled street of condemned buildings
and squalid tenements and transformed it into one of
the most desirable addresses in the city. Many people
thought he was nuts. A long-haired kid with a scruffy
beard, no money but a heart full of hope and chutzpah,
he helped a neighbourhood find its pride.



After 20 years of living in his adopted city, Dominick
Eden died Monday afternoon of lymphoma, a form of
cancer. He was 42.

His neighbours and tenants loved him. Common council
often reviled him. Those who met him didn't forget
him.

Debbie Eden, his wife of 22 years, recalls meeting him
in Halifax when they were barely out of high school.
He was an art student, a paint-splattered boy with a
toothy grin and wide-set eyes.

What attracted her to him was a different side of the
man that most people recall as a tub-thumping
extrovert.

"His quiet peacefulness," Mrs. Eden said of what
attracted her to him. "He was the complete opposite to
me," she added with a laugh.

A dreamer who dove headfirst into projects, Mr. Eden
ended up in Saint John quite by accident in the
mid-1980s. A world traveller and lover of aquatic
life, he and Debbie were heading to St. Andrews to see
the Huntsman Marine Science Centre. They made a stop
in Saint John along the way and got sidetracked.

They spotted a boarded up old dive, slated for
demolition at 17 Horsfield. Empty for 11 years, the
asking price was $24,000. Despite the street's grime,
poverty and dilapidation, the Edens were struck by the
building's beauty and Horsfield's potential.

With more guts than money, Mr. Eden scraped together
what was left of his student loan and bought the
building for $3,500. He was in business, moving into
this old building with no heat or plumbing with his
wife and infant son, Mitchel. He fixed it up, and over
the years bought four more 19th century buildings on
the same short block.

"Everybody wants to leave a legacy and he wanted to
make this city shine," Mrs. Eden said.

He earned his mayor title by keeping his street and
sidewalk clean. He often could be found sweeping,
cleaning, planting, even getting residents to move
their cars after a snowstorm so the street could be
plowed better.

Over the years, Mr. Eden led a Scout troop, headed up
the South Central Citizens Council, supported a little
league softball team and ran for common council
unsuccessfully on three occasions. He railed against
slum landlords, garbage, lax city bylaws and the lack
of a ward system that he felt left the city's centre
under-appreciated and under-represented by the elected
officials.

"He always felt the South End should have a better
name and he wanted to make it a better place for
people," said Shirley McAlary, a former mayor who had
her share of tussles with the maverick property owner.
"He often had an issue and even if he didn't have a
lot of support, he didn't give up."

His annual summer parties held in the courtyard of his
Horsfield buildings were also the stuff of local
legend. For more than a decade, they were the event of
the summer.

But there was also a private side to the man.

"After 22 years of marriage, I was still learning
things about him," Mrs. Eden said.

One was discovering that he had allowed a homeless
person to squat in his old Water Street warehouse
because he felt sorry for him. Unbeknownst to his
wife, he also secretly supported the Dukettes of
Horsfield Street, a girls softball team.

Janine van Winssen moved to Saint John two years ago
from Toronto, settling into Mr. Eden's flagship
building.

His properties, popular with artists and young
hipsters, are decorated with his vibrant paintings.

"He was great as a landlord," she said. "I considered
him a friend."

Just last weekend, when a snowstorm hit, Mr. Eden's
dedication to the community was reciprocated as he lay
ailing at the Saint John Regional Hospital. On three
occasions, Ms. van Winssen watched her neighbours
clean the walk in front of Mr. Eden's house.

"That was so nice. People just wanted to help in some
way," she said, musing about how much he will be
missed.

"Not seeing Dominick around in those tan overalls will
be sad. He was a fixture."