Leslieville Lives; Stories from the ‘Ville – Roxanne Smith

Meet Roxanne. We first met about 6 months ago via a friend of mine, who was an old school friend of Roxanne’s partner, Michelle. I had met Michelle several times previously and one night she was talking about the film, The Stairs, that Roxanne featured in. So, back in October, four of us went to the opening at TIFF Lightbox to a full house. It was an eye-opening look at the life of drug users in Toronto and how they turned their lives around. Roxanne was one of four people profiled in the film, directed and conceived by the young and talented Hugh Gibson.

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Leslieville Lives; Stories from the ‘Ville – John Makrygiannis

Meet John. When I first adopted Sunshine back in October 2014, we would start our morning walks pretty predictably. Down Sears St. towards Leslie then we’d veer off somewhere different. We passed the back of Michael and Michael, greeting the workers there,  then we’d hit the back of John’s place, Park Avenue Cleaners . It was often busy with people chatting, steam coming out from all the vents and the roller door open to cool things down. A lover of dogs, John began to come to the lane and greet us, with dog treat in hand. Such a lovely, kind man. We missed him when the weather got cold, but then…we’d just go around to the front door!

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Leslieville Lives; Stories from the ‘Ville – Rachel Clark

Meet Rachel. I first came across her a few years back when I was on the I Am A Leslievillian FB page, and saw 2 posts she’d written. One was about Loblaws, and a few days later, one about Bees. Laugh out loud funny. I wondered who this witty woman was who I’d never seen on that page before or since. Not long after, I posted on the page myself, asking for computer help and she messaged me. We had a nice exchange online, but she was way overqualified for what I needed. After that, I’d see her occasionally across Queen St. We were practically neighbours so no surprise there, but I hadn’t spoken to her in person until one day when she was waiting for a streetcar, which was a long time in coming, I stopped to say ‘hi’. We got to know each other a little, over a long conversation.

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Leslieville Lives; Stories from the ‘Ville – Diane Walton

Meet Diane. Many of you know her from her photo project, A Day in the Life of Leslieville, and…this one. We first met over our respective dogs at Cherry Beach. Maybe 10-12 years ago. My Bella loved her George. George loved me. Diane and I had the best conversations making a round or two then. We still see each other, sometimes in the most random of places. That east end whirlwind seems to be everywhere! And the kind of friend I’m glad I found.

Diane was born and bred in the suburbs of Toronto of 1st generation Italian (Mom) and Brit/Irish (Dad) parents. She’s the youngest of six: 5 girls 1 boy, and nearly didn’t make it into this world, spending 6 weeks in hospital with spinal meningitis, just an infant. Meningitis wasn’t the only ‘near-death experience’ she survived. Others involved cliffs, a scarf, bears, jumping off a moving train, coral snakes, a car & a rickety bus at 10,000 ft. “Recalling some of these, I have to believe I’m here for a reason!”

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