Part of the character of downtown Guelph is Royal City Mission and a new book tells the stories of people who fill the space with life.
Marion Reidel has been a volunteer at the mission for a couple of years, helping out in the kitchen. Since she started, there has been a reduction in service hours of the mission drop-in. It’s open Wednesday through Sunday from 2 to 7 p.m. with one meal served at 6 p.m. The drop-in used to be seven days a week from noon to 7 p.m.
“But the big thing is it allows them a community. And you'll see that as people start to fill the room. They just want other humans to talk to, you know, they want to socialize,” said Reidel.
People came in to have a coffee, play cards, talk to each other at shared tables and escape the heat of the summer.
Reidel is a writer and wanted to use her skills to help support the organization. She proposed the idea of a book to the Royal City Mission’s lead pastor and executive director Kevin Coghill.
“And we'll help people understand what work you do and who these people are, and how they came to be here,” she told him. It was an immediate yes from Coghill. The book is called Stories From The Mission.
One of the perceptions people have is that those who use the mission are drug users. “There are people fighting addiction here. Absolutely. There are people fighting mental health issues here. Absolutely. But there's also people who are just living in poverty,” said Reidel.
The story called Empathy in the book encompasses what debunking perceptions looks like. The story is a conversation between three sisters who get together at a coffee shop on the other side of the mission. One of the sisters, Sylvia, made comments like “that man is absolutely staggering. It’s the middle of the day, and he’s drunk as a skunk. It’s shameful.” Noreen volunteers at the mission and her sisters had no idea. After educating them that people aren’t always as they seem, Noreen suggested they meet at the mission for coffee next time. Her sister Betty chimed in to say it would only cost a bit of empathy.
Reidel acknowledges she comes from a place of privilege since she owns her own property, has a pension and a health plan. “And so this really is a wake-up call that these people are my neighbours. And some of them are sleeping, you know, in a little corner of a stairwell at night,” she said.
Escape tells the story of Jennifer who grew up in an upper class household in a small town. Her dad was abusive. She got pregnant purposefully to have someone who loved her. Jennifer wasn’t welcomed back to her parent’s home and ended up self-medicating to escape. With the money she had she was able to live in an apartment downtown until she and everyone else were evicted. “She’s now unhoused and is a matriarch at the Royal City Mission,” the story read.
To write the short stories in the book, Reidel spoke with people at the mission, took notes, wrote the story and then had them read it or she read it to them to make sure they were okay with their stories being told in the way she wrote them. She also changed people's names for the book.
Reidel thinks no one has really asked the mission’s clients their stories.
“And they were honoured to be asked to tell their stories. Sometimes they cried as they told me, and staff has cried as they read the stories,” she said. “It's handled very respectfully.”
“If a percentage of people in Guelph all gave $20 a month, it wouldn't hurt them and it would keep this program alive. So that's what I'm hoping for,” said Reidel.
Contributors to the creation of the book like writer Jaime Hill, cover artist Clive Lewis and publisher Lisa Browning donated their time and skills. For those who donate $25 or more to the mission will be given Stories From The Mission as a gift.
“That's the real power. It's lovely to get the books out there to educate people. But they need a steady stream of income so they can keep this place open,” said Reidel.
