While it’s not unusual to find people camping over the summer, Glenn Edgeworth is not doing it for leisure.
“I’ve kind of had a weird life,” Glenn says, sitting in a chair outside his RV, surrounded by trees.
First came a diagnosis of Stage 4 prostate cancer. Then came a renoviction from the home he had lived in for 18 years.
“It was pretty scary,” Glenn says softly. “At times I felt like quitting.”
He found himself living in his RV with his two cats, Jack and Ollie, parked along busy city streets.
“There’s a crack in the pavement,” he says. “So all you hear all day and all night is ta-dunk, ta-dunk, ta-dunk.”
After a year of living like that, Glenn received a notice prohibiting him from parking there. Once again, he had nowhere to go.
“It was pretty devastating,” he says.
His story soon made the news, and after multiple reports, a few people reached out to offer him parking spots—most for a price. Then one man knocked on his door and offered him a place to park for free.
“I tried to give him a hundred bucks,” Glenn recalls. “And he said, ‘I don’t need that.’”
When Glenn asked why, the man replied with just four words: “That’s what Canadians do.”
Now Glenn’s RV sits nestled among tall trees. It’s peaceful, quiet—and for the first time in a long while, it feels like home.
“I was literally in tears over it,” Glenn says. “Happy tears.”
That first night, he couldn’t fall asleep because it was so quiet.
“I was listening to the humming of my fridge,” he says with a smile. “I haven’t heard that in so long.”
The next morning, he woke to birdsong and new neighbours in the forest.
“The birds were chirping,” Glenn says, showing a photo of a deer he named Bambi. “I think he was saying, ‘Welcome to the neighborhood.’”
Now, Jack and Ollie can enjoy the fresh air while Glenn finds peace and purpose again.
“I’m really grateful for my own situation, but I don’t see the story stopping here,” Glenn says. “I want to do what I can.”
Once he settles in, Glenn hopes to pay it forward by recording and sharing the stories of others experiencing homelessness on his YouTube channel.
“To help people realize other people’s humanity,” he says.
To connect those who need help with those who can give it. And to keep doing what Canadians do.
