An interesting life

[vaneramos]

At the office I chat with a man who reveals some strange adventures of his life. I would place him in his late 60s.

He has survived five house fires.

He left home at age seven after his father beat him up, walking from Toronto to his grandfather's farm, where his mother and brother joined him a few months later.

When he was nine a coal oil lamp got knocked over. This was the second house fire. His mother and brother died in it. My acquaintance survived by jumping from a second-floor window. He shows me scars from burns covering his left shoulder and upper arm.

He spent the rest of his early life in foster homes and orphanages.

He had a fear of heights and wanted to overcome it. While living in an orphanage on the east side of the Don Valley, he climbed to the top of Bloor Street Viaduct. His initials are still there, he says.