BERWICK, N.S. -- Tabatha Ward says she left a single rose Thursday among a collection of flowers and candles outside a charred bus shelter in a rural Nova Scotia town as residents awaited word on what caused a fire that claimed the life of a homeless man who had drifted into the community months earlier.
The RCMP have called the death of Harley Lawrence, 62, suspicious but have not released results from an autopsy done Thursday as the medical examiner's office seeks more information. The Mounties also have not said whether the fire at the bus shelter in Berwick early Wednesday morning was accidental.
Ward, a volunteer with a group that helps people with mental health issues, said she was still coming to grips with the death of the man who had become a controversial figure in a town not used to people living so visibly on its streets.
"I'm still kind of in shock," she said from the Evangeline Club, which provides food and peer support to people with mental health problems.
"Sometimes you see people like that and they kind of make your day because you know they're OK -- at least if you see them, then you know they're OK."
Ward said she chatted with Lawrence occasionally after spotting him sitting outside a store she was going into last Christmas. She said she bought him a coffee and they talked about everything from holiday decorations to how he was doing.
Ward saw him often after that, usually in his regular spots outside the local Tim Hortons and the bus stop or wandering down the main street of Berwick with his belongings packed into a large plastic bag.
It was a sight many in the community of about 2,500 people did not like, according to Mayor Don Clarke who fielded several calls from residents who wanted to know if anything could be done to make him leave.
"He was a very sweet man and very friendly," Ward said. "He wasn't a nuisance, he did not commit any crimes, he did not hurt anyone -- he kept to himself."
Some who knew Lawrence said he resisted help and showed little interest in taking advantage of programs set up to aid the homeless. He had always rebuffed efforts by volunteers at the Evangeline Club to have coffee or come for a visit, said the club's co-ordinator Candy O'Brien.
Chaplain John Andrew met Lawrence in 2005 through the Open Arms emergency shelter in nearby Kentville, but said he still knew little about him.
Andrew, who is the managing director of the shelter, said the man had been living in various locations throughout the Annapolis Valley over the years, but also spent time in the Halifax suburb of Dartmouth and possibly Western Canada.
Andrew said family members had reached out to Lawrence a year or so ago, but were turned down. He said he had lived in a ravine and the garage of one of the emergency shelter's board members, only recently resorting to living on the town's main street.
Andrew said based on what Lawrence's family told him, he believes Lawrence suffered from a mental health condition. Because of that, Andrew said he wasn't sure if the stories Lawrence told him -- about a failed marriage, his work as a truck driver and stints in various Canadian cities -- were true.
"But behind this guy was a sense of humour. He liked to flirt and to pull people's strings," said Andrew, who's planning a vigil Saturday near the bus shelter.
Janet Lee, 64, a resident of Halifax, met Lawrence when he worked at a bed and breakfast across the street from her home in Dartmouth in the late 1980s. He also worked at odd jobs around the neighbourhood, wallpapering one her home's rooms and fixing a neighbour's house.
Lee recalled him as a quiet, unassuming man, and said he told her he was originally from the Annapolis Valley before coming to the city.
"He was kind of bashful," she said. "He watched people. He wondered what people thought of him."
Lee recalled that Lawrence left the neighbourhood in the early 1990s, and she lost touch with him for much of the decade.
However, Lee said she met Lawrence a little over a year ago, walking the street with a cart full of bottles.
She said he was reluctant to accept her help.
"He just wanted to talk about who he really was," she said, adding he told her he had a room in the north end of Dartmouth.
When she heard of his death, Lee said she and others in the close-knit neighbourhood were shocked.
"He had a lot of pride about himself. He knew his circumstances were bad. He didn't want help from me because I knew him at a different time and different place in his life," she said.
"I think it makes us all stop and think about what and how we help other people."
