Harry Havens died on Tuesday.
Who was Harry Havens?
He was a guy who lived next door to my room.
He moved in here a few months ago and he was in very poor health.
I never chatted with the guy much.
I noticed a few weeks ago he was sitting in his chair with his head down while coughing.
He had a cat across from him.
The room was full of smoke and Harry was coughing a lot. I might add that he tell would anyone to put their butts in a bag at the door.
He would roll them for smokes.
At night, you could hear him coughing very hard.
I bet he made many prayers for God to take him away from his misery. He was in very bad shape!!!
Last week, I chatted with the guy and asked him if I could take a picture?
I knew his time was limited so a souvenir would be nice?
He was afraid that the Landlord would know about the Cat and he would be evicted.
I told him to think about it?
On Sunday he landed in the hospital and I found out yesterday morning he was dead!!!
Too bad because he was just in his 50s.
I noticed the Caretakers coming in to clean his room.
I took this quick picture and the room was rented hours later.
I felt a sick feeling in my stomach of the way it happen.
They gathered his stuff and put it in a room so someone can pick it up. The room was rented hours later.
They put the food in the kitchen so the roomers could help themselves.
The only thing left as a memory of Harry are his shoes in the hallway.Maybe someone needs a pair of shoes?
On a personal note, I believe they should have waited a few days because his rent was paid but what do I know?
I wonder if the same action would happen to me if I died on the spot?
I believe it’s time for me to find a bigger place then a Roomers House?
I might add that the female caretaker felt really bad.
Maybe that’s the policy in a rooming house? You die? The room has to be quickly cleaned out?
What do I know?
Yes, I guess Harry used to run a Farm and sadly had a huge problem with alcohol.
He lost his family and lived at the Fredericton Emergency Shelter for years.
I didn’t know much of the guy because I never sat down to chat with Harry.
He often had visitors to his room so he had some friends around this City.
I live in a small room and no one bothers me. I do my little thing and everyone is happy!! I got my computer, cable and stereo system. If any of those items goes out? I'm in big trouble!!
I find it fitting that I post God’s Minute and a picture of the little message he had on his door.
My prayer’s are with Harry!!!
( Today's Message contains only verses taken from the
Bible. They are not capitalized because of the events
they describe.)
Now Charles, It Is Written:
Just as He was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve
appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords
and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers
of the law, and the elders. ( Mark 14:43 )
They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief
priests, elders and teachers of the law came together.
The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking
for evidence against Jesus so that they could put Him
to death. ( Mark 14:53 & 55 )
Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the
elders, the teachers of the law and the whole
Sanhedrin reached a decision. They bound Jesus,
led Him away and handed him over to Pilate.
( Mark 15:1 )
While Pilate was setting on the judge's seat, his
wife sent him this message: "Don't have anything to
do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great
deal today in a dream because of Him."
( Matthew 27:19 )
Now it was the governor's custom at the Feast
to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd.
( Matthew 27:15 )
The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them
what he usually did. "Do you want me to release to
you the King of the Jews?" asked Pilate. But the
chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate
release Barabbas instead. ( Mark 15: 8, 9 & 11 )
"What shall I do then, with the one you call the
King of the Jews?" Pilate asked them. "Crucify him!"
they shouted. "Why? What crime has He committed?"
asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder,
"Crucify him!" ( Mark 15:12-14 )
Pastor Allen
www.godsminute.org
=================================================================================================
At first, I didn’t really know how to take this one?
I attended the memorial held for Harry Havens this morning.
An individual approached me afterwards and told me the write up was great.
I thanked her.
She wasn’t talking about my blog. She told me it was in the Irving paper.
Was I confused? You darn right I was!!!
The woman told me the story I wrote in my blog was in the Irving paper?
I quickly said - You mean I made the Evil Irving newspaper????...lol
Hours later, I had a look and sure enough there it was.
The Irvings never asked me if they could used the story but that’s ok! If I would have never blogged the story? Nobody would have known and Harry’s death.
In the case? Harry just didn't became a stat!
The only part I had a problem with was the Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Activist.
I wish they would have just wrote the word- Blogger!!! That’s ok!
It’s nice the Irvings sometime use stories from this blog.
I hope this puts an end to the copyrights issue once and for all!!!
Here’s the story-
Homeless community to honour man who refused to give up at service today
TOOL HELP
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
Published Tuesday April 10th, 2007
Appeared on page A3
His name was Harry Havens.
He was 59.
The name won't mean much to the average Frederictonian.
He wasn't a prominent citizen, business leader, scholar or educator.
At one time, the Woodstock-born Havens had an ordinary life. He was the father of three children, the grandparent of two and had two brothers.
He was a man that local street-outreach volunteer Mavis Doucette remembers with affection for his gritty determination and a sense of humour.
Today at 11 a.m. at Brunswick Street Baptist Church, the city's homeless community and Havens's friends from the community clinic and the community kitchen will have a chance to say goodbye.
Havens rented a single room at a Carleton Street rooming house. He had a mattress on the floor covered by a sleeping bag, a chair, a chest of drawers and a pet cat he snuck indoors.
He moved from Woodstock because he wanted to break free of his addiction to alcohol, Doucette said.
"I don't know how many times he was in and out of detox. He just couldn't seem to overcome it. He would go for months without drinking," Doucette said.
Then he'd fall back.
Doucette once asked Havens how his life spiralled out of control.
"Driving down the road with a steering wheel in one hand and a beer bottle in another," Doucette said he told her.
She met Havens while trolling the streets to check on street people. She told Havens about the services at the community clinic.
Havens asked Doucette if she wanted to go out to dinner.
"I'll see if I can get (former YMCA street-outreach worker) Mike Ryan to take us to the soup kitchen some night," Doucette recalled Havens saying in gentlemanly fashion.
"He just had a great sense of humour."
After Havens died of kidney failure at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital, his family took him back to Woodstock for burial. A memorial service was held April 7, but even bus fare to Woodstock is beyond the reach of many of Havens's friends in the city.
"There's no closure for street people who all knew him and loved him," Doucette said. "They die and you're just supposed to forget them and step on and keep on going."
So Doucette reached out to the community for help, hoping to find a meeting room where friends could get together and pay their last respects.
Brunswick Street Baptist Church offered to help and one of its pastors will lead the service today.
While Havens had a dark side, his humanity shone through, Doucette said.
"Havens really cared for people and that got him in trouble," she recalled.
He'd feel so sorry for someone else that he'd give away what money he had. He'd then try to find odd jobs - such as pushing a shopping cart to pick fiddleheads in the spring and sell them to a local store - to earn enough to hold himself together.
A year ago, four young people mugged him and took his wallet. He ended up with a black eye, bruises and wounds. Another time he got so sick, he could barely walk.
"He'd somehow fight his way back. He was determined and stubborn," Doucette said.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder activist Charles LeBlanc wrote about Havens on his website called Oldmaison recently.
Havens lived in a room next door to LeBlanc.
"I noticed a few weeks ago he was sitting in his chair with his head down while coughing. He had a cat across from him. The room was full of smoke and Harry was coughing a lot ... At night, you could hear him coughing very hard," LeBlanc wrote on his website.
"I bet he made many prayers for God to take him away from his misery. He was in very bad shape."
Within a day of Havens' death, his room was emptied of his few worldly goods, as was his mini-fridge. The food was shared with the rest of the residents.
"I had a sick feeling in my stomach of the way it happened," LeBlanc wrote. "The room was rented hours later ... The female caretaker really felt bad."
With the room bereft of any personal belongings and the door left wide open, there was little evidence of the person who had been there just days before.
"The only thing left as a memory of Harry are his shoes in the hallway," LeBlanc wrote.
