Friends remember ‘Mayor of English Bay’ who connected with people

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Joe Anderson’s friends may be saying goodbye, but they’re not forgetting it.

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Anderson was a fixture in English Bay, rain or shine. He often arrived early in the morning and stayed until after sunset.

Anderson was so involved in what was going on around him that he was unofficially nicknamed the ‘Mayor of English Bay’.

There is no denying that Anderson had a difficult life. He lived most of it on the street, including a time in a car.

But he changed his life by helping people and creating a family of friends connected with the bathhouse building in English Bay.

“He was so generous, such a caring human being,” said Samee Ali, one of those friends.

“I do not know what to say. I’m going to cry. He was a diamond in the rough, a totally amazing human being. I would honestly consider him a very dear friend. “

Anderson, he said, never stopped helping people. One way he did it was with a dolly to move kayaks, paddleboards, and “anything that was heavy.”

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Once, in very bad weather, Ali remembered finishing a kilometer from the boat house with his windsurfer. He was exhausted from rowing.

“As soon as I got to the beach, Joe was there with this great doll,” Ali said.

“I said, ‘Joe, how did you know I was here?’ He said, ‘I’ve been watching you with these binoculars.’

Ali said that anyone who was a regular in English Bay had a similar story about helping Anderson.

He used a metal detector to find valuables in the sand, spoke on behalf of the containers, and figured out how to efficiently pack as many bottles and cans as he could for storage in the boathouse.

Several years ago, he was so brutally attacked on the beach that he was hospitalized and ended up with a metal plate on his head. His friends joined in, got him into low-income housing, and raised $ 4,200 for his recovery.

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At the end of his life, Anderson also taught himself to read and stopped drinking alcohol.

“I honestly believed that we acted as a de facto AA group for him,” Ali said sadly.

“We listened to what he had to say, we supported him.”

Anderson’s sister, Shirley Bright, came from Quesnel to help clean her West End apartment.

He said his brother was born in Timmins, Ontario. He was 71 years old.

Bright said he was reported missing on September 2. His body was found on September 15. Bright is upset and angry that he may have been dead for a couple of weeks. His friends said that he had been ill for months.

“He was very generous,” she said.

“I would take your shirt off your back even when you didn’t have a shirt on.”

After living as an “outcast and depressed for most of his life,” he was able to find his place in Vancouver, he said.

“My role in this is to come here, put my brother’s affairs in order, see him off with his English Bay family and bring some ashes to my mom so she can be at peace with her firstborn.”

A celebration of life is planned, but no date has been set.

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