The longest night: remembering those who have been forgotten

December 21 is a long, dark night. 

In Calgary, the sun will set at 4:32 pm and not rise up again until 8:38 am. For those without a roof over their heads, that’s more than 16 hours of darkness until daylight returns.

CUPS is joining together with others around the community on December 21 for the Longest Night of the Year, to remember all of those who we have lost because of homelessness this year. 

This is one small way we can show that every person’s life matters and that everyone deserves a celebration of life. Unfortunately, for many who have passed, this will be the only commemoration of their lives. 

A collaboration between the Client Action Committee (CAC), Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF) and Calgary Allied Mobile Palliative Partnership (CAMPP), approximately 200 names will be called out during the evening ceremony to recognize those we have lost this year. 

Remembering the people

Derek was one of the people remembered last year during the ceremony. 

According to his friend Dan, Derek was a person who often defied the expectations of others.   

Derek made a difference in the people around him with his infectious laugh and ability to find and help people that were often overlooked.

“He was a disrupter, in a good way,” recalls Dan in his eulogy.  

He pointed to a time when Derek was in the hospital, and the nurses surprisingly found him feeding an elderly man in the bed next to his.

“Derek was not a person who took himself too seriously, and he made sure others did not either,” Dan remembers fondly, adding that he had a bit of magnetism to him.  

“People always wanted to be around him.”

Wishing a safe journey

The memorial is open for everyone to come out and remember the friends, family and fellow Calgarians we have lost while experiencing homelessness.

The ceremony will feature an Indigenous blessing, prayers, smudging, singing, and drumming as the names of all the people we have lost in the past year are called out.  Many of them will be remembered for the people they were through stories shared by those who were closest to them. 

Elder Gilbert Crowchild says the spirits of these people will be with those at the ceremony and that this is a way to tell them “to have a safe journey, so they don’t look back, so they don’t take anyone with them.” 

This year’s ceremony takes place on December 21 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the City Hall-Municipal Complex Atrium in person or streamed online at www.longestnightyyc.com.