Street roots., July 03, 2015, Page 6, Image 6

Farewell, Randy-boy
any of you probably have seen me
and my dog the past two years
selling Street Roots at Whole
Foods and Powell’s Bookstore. I am
saddened to tell you
Randy was laid to rest
June 17 due to health
issues.
Randy loved to go to
work because usually
someone would give
him a treat. I lost my
best friend that day.
He gave me nine years
of happiness I will never forget.
I would like to thank Street Roots. It’s
because of you we met people so nice who
really cared about Randy. Some helped with
his medicine and vet bills, for which I am so
grateful. Without you guys, Randy would
not have made it this long. I have never
met people so nice and caring, so I thank
all of you, especially Laura and others who
gave their time and money to help even
though they have a busy life.
I know Randy touched a lot of lives and
made me a better person. I thank God for
allowing me to love again and meet so
many awesome people. Randy may be
gone, but he will always be with us in our
hearts. So, thank you Street Roots and all
of my customers who are helping me
during this time. Rest in peace, Randy-boy.
Daddy loves you.
— Rick Phillips
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Street Roots • July 3-9, 2015
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Brian Castor
BY LEONORA KO
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
rian Castor is houseless and a model
neighbor.
B
“I keep my roll military-tight, so
everything is straight and even. Both me
and my girl have OCD,” Brian says. “So
everything is clean. We make sure we’re
washed. We make sure our stuffs washed
and everything is neat, organized, put away.
We keep a garbage bag; we have a broom. I
carry it with'me. I use it everywhere.”
Brian laughs and says, “I like sweeping.
It’s good Zen.”
He has known his housed neighbors for
four years.
“We have really nice neighbors. They
really like us. I build relationships with
communities, so I always sweep, I pick up
trash, and I always make sure their stuff is
safe. When my block becomes a nicer,
quieter block, then the people that live
there are happy.”
“I’m obsessive-compulsive,” Brian says,
laughing again. “I’m unmedicated, so I’m
doing it completely on meditation
and perspective. It’s
emotionally taxing. When
I’m (on the street), I don’t
have issues. I didn’t
think it would ever be
true-of someone like
me because I come
from privilege. I
never struggled.”
It is difficult
for Brian to
talk about his
personal life,
but he feels he
owes something
to the readers.
In his early 20s,
Brian had a
young family
and a big house and was a partner in a
successful trucking company in Maine.
Then his wife died of leukemia when his
daughter was 3 years old. A drunken driver
killed his daughter when she was 17.
“I wanted to die,” Brian says softly. I
was raised Catholic so I can’t kill myself.
Instead, he ballooned to 500 pounds, and
his doctors told him that within five years,
he would be dead.
“I had to really look at myself as a
person, what I wanted to do. And I decided
the way I was living wasn’t full of anything
important,” says Brian. “So I walked away
from my life. I literally packed a bag, walked
out the front door and joined Occupy New
York.”
He followed the Occupy movement across
the country until he ended up in Portland.
Brian says being outside “is hard. I
landed here five years ago,
and I was 500 pounds. I’m
250 now; I’ve lost a
whole me. I’m
healthier, stronger.
I’ve got issues, but
the struggle has
made me stronger.”
Brian notices some
people in the Pearl
“go out of their
way to not
O
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see me or my wife — and we’re knitting or
playing cards. Or wé’re reading, listening to
music. Sometimes they’re more aggressive
about their disdain at us. And I get it.”
Brian wants the public to know: The
houseless community is full of all different
types of people, but the key is that we re
people. The sad thing is that there are just
a lot of us,
“Some people in my community, they
walk around and they don’t say anything to
anybody all day sometimes. They don’t get
touched. They don’t get any positive
feedback, any interactions that are worth
talking about. That can happen for days,
weeks, months.”
He says that to help the houseless, “you
can reach out to them and say, ‘What’s
happening with you?’ And then let them
speak. Let them have a place to interact, to
rejoin humanity.”
Brian recently began selling Street Roots
at Northwest 10th Avenue and Everett
Street, in front of Ben and Jerry’s and
Cupcake Jones.
“I consider it aroma therapy,” he says.
“It’s the smell of cupcakes and ice cream,
and it makes me super happy. I don’t need
to eat it. I can just sit there and smell it.
And then I have a big grin on my face, and
it helps me interact with all the different
customers that walk by.”
Brian calls himself a Christian Buddhist.
“I find kind things to say to every single
person that walks by. I don’t care if they
don’t buy the paper. I’ve got a lot of people
that say that was the nicest thing that
■ so m e b o d y said to them all day. And they
■weregJcateTuI^verygraEeTurTor^natT^"
“And that makes me happy
because I don’t get a chance to
have positive interactions
with people in the Pearl
very often. But now I do,
every day. Well, except
for Sundays. That’s
church. Even God had
one day of rest. I go to
church with my wife.”