Extending Families

There is a photograph on the wall at Santropol Roulant of an older man at his front door, which stands at the end of a long, grey hallway. He laughs and watches a young woman who reaches into a bright red knapsack filled with hot meals. She looks straight at him; they are laughing together. The newspaper article with which this photo appeared – about “shut-ins” needing help in the winter – does not accompany the photograph. We discarded it. It was the wrong story.

To the journalist, an elderly bachelor in low-income housing receiving meals-on-wheels was a sentimental story. To a social worker, he is a patient in need of healthcare administered by professionals. As a statistic, he represents a growing trend of isolated urban elderly. As a person, M. Lachance* was funny and warm and wouldn’t let you leave until you had discussed last week’s hockey scores.

He died suddenly in hospital. His sister, with whom we had previously been unacquainted, called to let us know. She thanked us for the way in which we were in her brother’s life over the last four years. “He had so many people in his life,” she said, a little surprised.

What is extraordinary is the way M. Lachance touched the lives of hundreds of young people who volunteered or worked at Santropol Roulant over the years he received our meals. He was known - and he was loved.
M. Lachance was not a “recipient” of a meal service, he was the catalyst for a whole community of young people (and the young at heart) to create a new kind of community.
His gift to us was to invite us each to bring the best of ourselves forward and create a Santropol Roulant.

The work we do at Santropol Roulant is part of an emerging narrative about family, connection and the ties that bind. These are not the traditional ties through marriage, bloodlines, and obligatory or contractual responsibilities. A new set of relationships is forming between unlikely people, between strangers who touch one another’s lives – and become lifelines.

Vanessa Reid began her love affair with Santropol Roulant in 1995 delivering meals by bike while studying architecture at McGill University. After working in India, she landed back in Montreal finding her roots at, and her community through, the Roulant as executive director from 2001-2005. The love affair continues….

*name has been changed

a version of this piece was first published in ascent magazine, Spring 2005. www.ascentmagazine.com and this version is one of 12 Harvesting Histories stories in the Santropol Roulant 2006 Agenda book! www.santropolroulant.org