For those of you who don't know my story, I'm going to tell it because I think it's very poignant with these extremely cold temperatures that we are currently facing. It was around this time of year back in 2017. I was homeless, and except for the times I could afford a no tell motel room, I was living on the streets of Toronto. The motel room cost me $60/night. I was usually OK for the first couple of weeks of the month because I had my disability check. That covered my rent more or less, but if I wanted to eat I had to panhandle for change, or whatever I could glean from the kindness and generosity of strangers. I was told by veteran homeless people to stay away from the shelters. They said they were filthy, dangerous, and violent. The second I fell asleep I would be a sitting duck for anything I had with me to be stolen. One night, I was trying to hide from temperatures much like what we are facing now in a Bus shelter. It wasn't much, but it was all I had. I was tired, weak from not having enough food to eat, and to say I felt cold was an understatement. Every appendage ached from the cold, and I started to become drowsy. I knew somehow that this was the onset of hypothermia. Part of me just said ah fuck it. Just go to sleep. If you wake up, you wake up. If you don't, oh well you'll just be another statistic of someone dying on the streets. It got to the point where I felt like if I didn't make one last push to stay awake, I was done for. So with every last ounce of energy I had, I stood up, grabbed my backpack, and started walking. I couldn't feel my feet, and I could barely feel my fingers enough to know whether I was really holding onto my bag. I managed to find an all night Tim Hortons, and I used my last few bucks to order a couple of hot drinks and sit there while I defrosted. To this day, I'm convinced that if I hadn't pushed myself to move and find better shelter when I did, I wouldn't be here now. The Takeaway from all this is, while we are all safe and warm in our homes, have a thought for people like those in our blind/disabled communities who are out there facing the elements, as opposed to possibly putting their lives at risk by going to a shelter. If you encounter a homeless person on your travels and it wouldn't be a hardship for you to slip them a couple of bucks, please consider doing it. That extra change could be the difference between life and death for someone forced to face the cold alone.