Chris Redden Obituary, Death – Chris Redden’s body was discovered in a Halifax parking garage on December 29, 2022. He was 51. Chris left the emergency department without a diagnosis for his stomach problems four or five years ago. Because of how he was initially handled, the Halifax resident refused to return to the hospital as his illness worsened. He eventually lost his job because he was too unwell to work, according to Shelagh Sutherland. Sutherland and Redden met through common friends in Wolfville in the early 1990s.
“I considered him a member of my Wolfville family,” Sutherland added, praising Redden as a sweet, compassionate, and sensitive guy. “Then, around the end of the ’90s, when I moved to Halifax, he moved as well and was living with one of my best friends,” she explained. “Everything in our lives was constantly in tune.” Like many others, the couple grew apart as they got older. Redden, on the other hand, kept in touch with his Wolfville pals on a regular basis. “To be honest, he did a better job of staying in touch than the rest of us,” Sutherland remarked.
Prior to Facebook, Redden would phone his buddies on a regular basis. He then used Messenger to communicate with his friends. Redden, on the other hand, abruptly stopped playing an online word game with a friend, which he had been doing on a regular basis, near the end of December. Then, at Halifax Central Library, a community navigator noticed Redden was gone. Sutherland and her friends were taken aback when they learned of Redden’s death, especially since they had no idea he had been homeless for nearly four years. “We discovered that this had been a years-long secret that we had been completely oblivious of,” Sutherland remarked.
Sutherland added that he had spoken with Redden on numerous occasions over the years and that he had never indicated that he was living on the streets and receiving food from the Halifax Central Library snack program and the St. Andrew’s United Church Sunday supper program. “I think there’s a lot of pride there,” she noticed. “He simply did not want to be a bother. It’s a lesson in keeping an eye on what can’t be seen.” The cause of Redden’s death is unknown pending autopsy results.
Sutherland and others feel Redden may have lived a longer life if his emergency room visit years ago hadn’t contributed to his homeless situation. “It’s a never-ending loop,” she explained. “It piles on top of one person, and there’s no way out.” Sutherland has established a GoFundMe account in Redden’s honor, which has raised approximately $1,000 as of Wednesday afternoon. The funds will be donated to the Halifax Central Library and utilized for “food and housing insecurity activities as decided by community navigators.” “Chris had a truly awful ending to a very sad narrative,” remarked Sutherland. “We’ll be fine if we only save one person. That is all we require.”