The thing that bothered Barbara Legault the most over the years was that her older brother, Pete Seigo, was alone and out in the cold, battling his inner demons.
She thought a lot about that when Pete was just surviving and struggling with schizophrenia.
“Every night that it was freezing, I could only pray for my brother,” said Barbara, now living in Kamloops.
“And I would pray and I would be so sad. How is he? Where is he?… Even if I was there, he wouldn’t let you help.”
Barbara was three years younger than her brother Pete, 61. He died Sept. 20 after spending a lifetime outdoors. His death brought an outpouring of love from dozens of people who remembered Pete in his wheelchair hanging around outside the 7-Eleven or Chevron gas station in west Maple Ridge, always willing to chat briefly or accept a coffee.
Barbara remembers the early years, in the 1960s and ’70s, as a typical childhood, as the four brothers and sisters grew up in Maple Ridge and did kid stuff, such as building forts and flying kites. Pete was popular in high school and had a girlfriend, who he was with until his 20s.
Pete loved cars, his first being a white Valiant, from his uncle, followed by a black Barracuda, then a green 1973 Challenger.
By his late teens, though, the family noticed him acting strangely. They’d come home from school and find him sprawled on the carpet, listening to loud music. He’d talk about strange theories involving aliens, pyramids or the government.
“The weirdest things he would say,” Barbara recalled. “But he was never violent.”
He was smart, Barbara remembers.
“He just loved to learn.”
But he quit school in Grade 11.
Pete also got into marijuana in his early teens.
“He would smoke pot every day.”
Pete used to tell his mom that smoking pot was the only way he could get to sleep.
Barbara thinks that marijuana worsened Pete’s condition, though it may not have caused it. And her doctor did tell her there was such a thing as “drug-induced schizophrenia,” for some people, she added.
As a result, she raised her own children to stay off drugs.
“I have, all my life, counselled young people against it. People really need to be cautioned.”
With marijuana legalization coming, people need to educate their kids about the possible effects on young people, she added.
She remembers that once Pete had a nice tent in the bush near Stave Lake, until someone stole it. Every time that happened, Pete would go “deeper, and deeper,” said Barbara.
Back then, people weren’t as aware of mental illness. His dad didn’t know what to do and didn’t know how to react when he saw Pete living outside.
“Our father was embarrassed that this had happened to his family,” Barbara said.
“Nobody really knew what was wrong with him. Why can’t you stop this?”
Barbara said Pete’s story has gone beyond Maple Ridge. She learned of his death up in Kamloops, from a former Maple Ridge resident, just by chance.
“They all loved Pete.”
A Farewell Pete memorial takes place Wednesday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. in Memorial Peace Park in downtown Maple Ridge.
Local artist Cartney Warren has also just painted a portrait of Pete.
Barbara appreciates that people kept an eye out for him, as she does for other homeless people where she lives in Kamloops.
“They helped my brother and I knew that. I helped their brother or their sister.”
And she always gives something when she encounters a homeless person on the street.
People are usually there for a reason, she adds, such as mental illness.
People, she said, will do drugs or drink in order to self-medicate because they know something’s wrong inside.
So when people see those who are homeless, give them something, she said, if only it’s a smile.
“Don’t not look at them. Smile and say ‘hi.’ They’re people. They’re human beings. It’s somebody else’s brother. It’s somebody else’s son, or daughter or sister.”
Showing compassion could be the boost someone needs to get help, she adds.
“It’s awful to think that somebody you love is out in the cold and it’s freezing out and you’re inside and you’re warm. It’s painful.”
