mereggie stories

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Reg’s Toronto Years [2001+], including 9/11

… Reggie had been in Toronto since 2001.  At that time, when Reggie announced one day that he would like to go to Toronto, I was very excited and couldn’t wait for him to leave.  He went up by the bus, and within a few days of arriving, he started to work at Toronto Island Airport.  He was driving a fuel truck.  He would phone and tell us that he liked his job and had a very good chance of getting work there (on Toronto Island), working at what he was trained for – Avionics Electronics.  We were hoping that things were finally starting to change for Reggie and Helen and I were very happy.

Shortly after 9/11, Reggie’s world came tumbling down.  He had a criminal record from the drug days and when his employer checked his records, he was terminated.  It was just downhill and hardships from then on for him and us, especially his mother.  There were many long and soulful calls. He started bouncing from job to job.  When he would get hired, he would not tell them about his criminal record and they would find out and let him go.  He finally got a job selling subscriptions to the Toronto Sun; he worked on salary plus commission and just existed.

His last move was to near Oshawa and his landlady was very nice to him.  He was not healthy then and his Hepatitis C was probably starting to take its deadly toll.  He did not have a very good credit rating but she helped him get a car – a 1995 Pontiac from a friend of hers who owned a GM dealership.  It was a good car, but Reggie was hard on vehicles, and he had an accident with it on the 401 highway.  There was some damage to the right fender, which he hammered out himself.  Finally, the first week of May 2005, the Ontario Provincial Police cancelled his driving license for non-payment of fines, which he had accumulated over the past few years, totaling over $8,000.  This was too much for him and he had to leave Ontario.  He phoned his mother and in less than 24 hours, he was home.  He was terribly nervous that he would get stopped, but he did it.

Reg's Insane Landlord