Age: 47
From: East Vancouver
Lori is a mother of 3 children who live in Chilliwack and Mission. She sees them occasionally. Cocaine was her drug of choice, but she’s off drugs now. She lives and sleeps on the street. She can’t find financial help and her parents are elderly, so she doesn’t ask them to help.
Lori was hospitalized in 1996 with an abscess on her spine that required surgery. She was not expected to walk again, but did so in a year.
Advice to young people thinking of a life on the street:
“Stay off the street and don’t do drugs. Get a job, stay with it, and don’t let life get you down. Hold your head high, do what you have to do, as long as it’s legal.”