Two deaths on my block this week

Curtis was one of the first people I met when I moved here. He was walking his dog early one January morning and we talked. I kept running into him and he would encourage me to get out more with my dog Charlie. He especially appreciated the groceries he received from our food pantry. Later this summer when I saw him mowing the lawn in front of our house I asked him to mow the grass in front of our building on St. Louis Avenue. He was eager to help and always asked if we had more work for him to do. I told him to hold on, that soon the Breakthrough Ministry Center would be up and running and we would have an employment center there to help him get a good job. He was very excited about that and asked me about it everytime we met. Over the weekend he was given bad heroin and I learned today that he died. When I asked my neighbors about his funeral they told me another man we knew as Santa Claus because of his full white beard passed away today. He was living in the boarded up building three doors down from me and died from a gas leak in the building. These are the men Breakthrough is here to serve. We really need to get our building renovated so guys like Curtis and Santa Claus will have opportunities before it is too late.