"We were living in a huge mansion in Shaughnessy", says Glen, then smiling glibly, adds, "I seem to have a tendency for living in mansions. It was turned into a de facto AIDS hospice, and I was one of several people who lived there and served."
"That place was in the news for a while", say I.
"It became quite a scandal", says Glen. ""Our beginnings were innocent enough. This wealthy woman, British, a recent widow, felt called by God to open her home to the dying."
"Very noble of her", says Francois.
"Stephen, or Tanya, was her biological son, whom she abandoned in the BC wilderness. He had AIDS and this was her atonement."
"Curiouser and curiouser", says Carl. "There must be a story there."
"Always a journalist", says Francois, rolling his eyes.
"Back in the early sixties, she had an affair with a young Anglican priest in a small town near Kamloops. She was visiting friends while her much older husband was on a very extended business trip. Apparently it was a deal selling arms to the white Afrikaner forces in then apartheid South Africa."
"Interestinger and interestinger", says Carl, grinning.
"She gave birth in a cabin in the sticks with help from a native midwife, to whom she gave her child and was allegedly adopted by the band, but Stephen went from foster home to foster home and ended up hooking on the streets dressed as Tanya. They met in a coffee shop, then one thing led to another. Her husband was, at the time dying. And shortly after he ended up living with her in her mansion..."
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