Places Where I've Lived: Ferndale 5

Tarzan moved in with me in late July 1988.  He was a recovering coke addict and dealer and a former body builder.  He wanted to turn his life around and claimed to have had some rather weird dreams or visions about me before we met.  I foolishly accepted his proposal of moving in, given the need for extra help and financial support for the house.  My hours at work were less than generous and I was barely making ends meet.  He had money, a generous savings account thanks to his previous, er, career and wanted to share it all with me.

He did undergo from all appearances a dramatic conversion.  He also became needy and codependent and it was very difficult for me to get breathing space with him in the house.  He was soon accompanying me downtown as I was still doing street ministry.  He seemed very effective, also friendly, attractive and charismatic.  He also had a violent streak and a very controlling nature.  I cut him all kinds of slack but nothing I did seemed good enough for him and he very quickly tried to turn himself into my master.

He would not get a job, even though the money was running out.  He said that we were already doing the Lord's work and that we must trust God for our provision.  God did provide, always at fifty-nine minutes past the eleventh hour.  We were regularly attending the Anglican parish church in the area where many befriended us.   The priest, a chain smoker and alcoholic, was particularly supportive of us as were the members of the church council.  I had to quit my job because of burnout and did not leave on good terms.  With all my energy going into supporting Tarzan in his recovery and in his growing walk with God, along with the ministry downtown and coping with my mother's battle with cancer, I had nothing left for my already stressful and demanding job.  This happened in February 1989.

My friend, the Buddhist, was in the advanced stages of AIDS, likely contracted in a notorious New York City bath house called the Mine Shaft.  He took a strong interest in Tarzan and me and in our ministry and made us auxiliary members of the Vancouver Persons With Aids Society.  We made many friends there and a few enemies.  Our apparently fundamentalist version of Christianity put quite a few members off, especially given that we were, not exactly anti-gay, but strongly viewed it as a lifestyle to be rescued from by God.  Looking back, I marvel that we had any friends there at all.

In January 1989 we had a huge lunch party for our friends living with AIDS.  This was before the huge advances in Anti Retro Viral treatment had been made, so AIDS was still a death sentence.  We immersed ourselves into the brutally truncated lives of our friends, knowing we would soon be losing every single one of them to the grave.

Meanwhile I left my job, received a pittance from Unemployment Insurance, and Tarzan still refused to get a job.  Things could only get interesting...