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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, October 11, 2012 · 6 The Oakville Beaver The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Guest Column nce upon a time there was a beautiful young lady with three wonderful children that she was raising on her own in our community. They were happy, though they were a single-parent family and their family and support line were far away on the east coast. But `Bev' was unrelenting on making a happy and positive new life for her children in the welcoming community of Oakville. Months later the happiness crumbled -- Bev had cancer. There was little support for her family, she was unable to work. Bills added up and Bev worried her family would not have a roof over their heads. Homeless. Through a reference and research Bev found Home Suite Hope (HSH) and felt relief and hope for her children and support for herself. HSH not only provided her with a safe and welcoming home for her family, but also inspired new hope. And this is not where the support ends. There is a saying that if you provide food to the hungry they will eventually starve, but if you provide guidance, tools and education they become confident and self-sufficient. This is what HSH does from A to Z. Bev received social support from many resources as well as food and nutrition needs, life-skills training, employment and financial counselling, dental and medical support -- everything to get back on her feet. Let's not forget her children who were struggling with being uprooted from their home and concern for their mom's health. As parents, we protect and nurture our children, but Bev was struggling to do this on her own while battling cancer and that is why HSH supports children -- the entire family. All children need social engagement and opportunities to build confidence and memories outside of their homes and school. 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 905-631-6095 Neil Oliver Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West David harvey Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief Daniel Baird Advertising Director ANGELA BLACKBURN Managing Editor Riziero Vertolli Photography Director Sandy Pare Business Manager RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association MARK DILLS Director of Production Manuel garcia Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution KIM MOSSMAN Circulation Manager Website www.oakvillebeaver.com The OakvilleBeaver is a division of O Help for the homeless These often come from luxuries like lessons and trips that homeless families like Bev's can't afford. Well, more than three years later, with the support of our community of donors, volunteers and sponsors like all of our guests here today Bev has succeeded. Because of your support of HSH we were able to help Bev and many other families turn things around. Today, Bev is currently part of our outreach program and continues to give back. Most recently she joined the HSH program advisory committee (PAC) and was part of the HSH team at a build in support of Habitat of Humanity Halton in Milton -- more remarkable a house she applied for. And the happy ending continues because of your support. Bev has enrolled in college this fall to become a social worker because she wants to give back and help others that experience similar challenges that she was able to overcome because there is hope, because of charities like HSH. Pay it forward is alive my friends -- and Bev is a perfect example of this. But this is only one of the many families that we are assisting, but sadly there are many more we can help in our community. Empty Bowls, HSH's annual fundraiser is Sunday, Oct. 14 at St. Mildred's-Lightbourn School, 1080 Linbrook Rd. Tickets cost $60 and are available at www.homesuitehope. org. -- Submitted by Empty Bowls 2012 Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville ATHENA Award eric riehl / oakville beaver / @halton_photog table talk: Metroland Media's Halton Editor in Chief Jill Davis, left, and her husband, John McGhie, also a Metroland editor, will be guests on an upcoming episode of Return to the Table's second season on TVCogeco. Here, the couple learns to make biscotti with Chef Julia Hanna, of Oakville's Ristorante Julia downtown and Ritorno in Oak Park, during a filming Friday. The show teaches local VIPs to prepare healthy, home-cooked meals families can enjoy together. Joined on beautiful fall day by a man who bear-hugged life e came to me last week, on his birthday, on one of those early October days so unseasonably warm that it makes you embrace autumn and forget for a moment that winter is looming. I was taking a brief break from life, sitting on a bench on our mudroom patio and enjoying the welcome sun on my face. I closed my eyes and there he was... outside, washing windows. He was wearing the smile he always seemed to wear when set free to putter outdoors and he was clad in his usual puttering clothes: a worn grey sweatshirt and a pair of pants he was forever threatening to return (with mock indignation) because they were starting to look a little threadbare, "and they've only lasted me 30 years!" The memory was sun-splashed, framed in autumn colors, and as vivid as any childhood memory I possess. Vivid, I suppose, because I witnessed him repeatedly performing this task, every autumn for so many years. This was back in the days when homeowners tended to have two sets of windows: a set of screens for fair weather and a set of aptly named `storms' for winter. By profession, my father was a Realtor. By personality, he was a perpetual putterer, a man most at home and happiest in his work- H Andy Juniper shop, or outside, turning our property into something out of Better Homes & Gardens. I can't imagine he was at all enamoured with the job of changing the windows -- it was tough slogging; scaling a ladder, taking down the screens and storing them for winter, then replacing them with the freshly-cleaned, clunky storms. But my father knew how to enjoy life and he managed to turn this mundane task into something more memorable. It's often said that life is all about timing -- and luck. Well, when it came to the annual window swap, my father would almost always be blessed with good timing and luck, which meant that more often than not he was outside working on the most beautiful fall day imaginable. Having taken the day off work, he'd get out early. He would labour for a few hours, then break for a breakfast of bacon and eggs and hash browns. Thusly fortified, he'd head back outside. By midafternoon the job would be done. Once back in the house, he'd get himself comfortably ensconced in front of the television in the sunroom. Salted peanuts. Cold beer. And his beloved baseball. Back in those days, post-season baseball was contested in the afternoons. And it was no coincidence that the day my father took off work to do an outdoor chore was a day when the first pitch of a playoff series was slated to fly, right around the time he was set to sit down. My father loved baseball. My mother loved the diamond game, too. It was one of their shared passions, one of their shared escapes. And, as we would discover as a family: you never know when your life will take turns that will leave you reeling and in need of escapes. My dad died 16 years ago after an ugly struggle with vascular dementia -- the disease that slowly killed him, and threatened to suck the life out of everyone around him. I loved my father, to the point where I believe I became him in assorted ways. I still think of him often. And when I do, the setting is almost always autumn. There he is. Outside puttering. Inside watching baseball. Enjoying life, revelling in every inning, giving each day a bear hug. Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, found on Facebook at www.facebook.com, or followed at www.twitter. com/thesportjesters.