Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation

Addiction and houselessness are deeply intertwined issues that can feel insurmountable, not just for those experiencing them but also for the family and friends who bear witness to their loved one’s struggle. Both can create a cycle of despair where physical, mental, and emotional tolls make it difficult to break free.  

Without access to community support and safe housing, individuals face immense barriers in their attempts to recover and rebuild their lives. One such individual, Nathan Staheli, was regrettably not able to overcome the immense challenges of addiction and houselessness despite his determination.   

Nathan was just seventeen when he left home, and by thirty-six, his life came to a heartbreaking end. His story is one of struggle, heartache, and loss—not only for him, but for his family, who fought to help him escape the cycle of addiction and houselessness. A cycle that may have been broken if the right support systems were available to Nathan from the start. 

“If something like Bridge Healing was available earlier, Nathan might have had a chance.”  
– Marjorie & Glen Staheli 

Nathan’s early years were filled with promise. He was adopted into a loving family by Marjorie and Glen Staheli, business owners in the Edmonton area. He was a kind and affectionate child who loved Harry Potter, oranges, and snowboarding. A diagnosis of ADD at an early age made some aspects of life more difficult for Nathan, particularly in forming friendships. Unbeknownst to anyone, this would mark the beginning of the transition in Nathan’s life that led to his passing. 

At just seventeen, Nathan began spending time with a new group of people. They had an immediate and negative impact on him. He started missing classes, staying out late, and avoiding home. The more time Nathan spent with this group, the greater his exposure was to drugs, and he began to experiment, first with marijuana and then more potent substances as the years progressed. So began a decades-long struggle with addiction. His parents could only watch, heartbroken, as this new cycle quickly took control of Nathan’s life.  

Nathan left home before graduating, staying at friend’s homes and, later, in and out of juvenile detention. Despite Marjorie and Glen’s efforts to help him, bringing Nathan supplies and taking him for meals to spend time with him, his condition and their relationship worsened. 

By his twenties, Nathan’s time in juvenile detention turned to jail stints and court appearances. Marjorie and Glen were there to support Nathan, picking him up when released and ensuring he was okay, but the system was failing him. Whether it was from jail or medical centres, whenever Nathan left, he would immediately be returned to the same cycle that plagued him. He would be brought to jail during the summer and released in the middle of winter, wearing the same shorts and flipflops he arrived in. He would receive medication from hospitals, but with no structure in life, he would soon fail to stay on treatments. He would stay with friends again, but there was never any consistency to his living conditions. There was never a break from repeating the next step of the cycle.  

“A lot of people, when they see a homeless person begging outside of a farmers’ market, they turn away because they don't want to encounter them. I always make eye contact, and I talk to them, because they're still people. We need to understand that these people are somebody's daughter, somebody's son.”  
– Marjorie Staheli 

At twenty-eight, after another release from jail, when Marjorie and Glen picked Nathan up, he asked to be brought to Calgary instead of home or to a friend’s place. This decision only made his living conditions worse. 

Nathan denied his situation, saying he was staying with friends, but in reality, he was living in encampments, sleeping under tarps and in bushes, scraping by—night by night. There, his challenges only grew. Possessions were lost or stolen, and he had difficulty accessing critical needs like his eyeglasses or ID. Despite Marjorie and Glen’s best efforts to support Nathan, there was only so much they could do and only so much Nathan would accept.  

By his thirties, Nathan resented what his life had become.  

His parents offered him counselling and therapy, but despite his opinions on his life, Nathan still refused their help, saying he had friends that would help him instead. The trauma and addiction continued to weigh him down. Despite Marjorie and Glen’s efforts to keep his head above water, Nathan would continue to sink back down in his struggle. The support he needed to recover was fragmented and difficult to access, always just out of reach.  

The last time Majorie and Glen would see their son was during a visit to Calgary where they took him out for dinner and brought him some Christmas oranges, a year and a half before his death. 

Marjorie and Glen had made plans to see Nathan again after a trip they were taking. Due to Covid, they were required to quarantine after returning to Canada, and during that time they spoke with Nathan and said once they were cleared, they would take him for dinner. They would bring him more oranges. They would spend some time together. They never got the chance. 

While in quarantine, two officers came to Marjorie and Glen’s door. At first, Marjorie figured they had accidentally broken quarantine, but as the officers began to ask for confirmation of Marjorie and Glen’s names, they knew.  

They did not need to hear the words to understand that Nathan had passed.  

Amid the heartbreak and grief of losing their son, there was also a measure of solace in knowing his difficult and painful journey was finally over. In his passing, Marjorie and Glen knew that Nathan was in a better place now, free of the physical and emotional pain he had endured for so many years. 

Nathan’s passing left Marjorie and Glen with a deep sense of loss and countless unanswered questions. There was so much more they wished to know and understand. There is so much more they wish they could have done. What could have been done differently? Were there chances to intervene that had been missed? Despite everything they did, they still wanted to do more.  

While Nathan’s life was marked by tragedy, his story carries the power to inspire change—a chance to transform a system that might have been able to help him when he needed it most. Through their foundation, Marjorie and Glen supported organizations that had been there to help Nathan in his times of need, such as the Calgary Drop-In Centre, who helped Nathan during his time in Calgary when he needed shelter. Even then, they felt there was more they could do. 

“A system like Bridge Healing can be so meaningful and helpful to people dealing with addiction or homelessness. To provide so many ways to help a person, and to provide it in a community with other people like them, where they can hear and see a success story, it offers people hope that something can also be done for them.”  
– Marjorie & Glen Staheli 

Thanks to a mutual friend, Marjorie and Glen had the opportunity to speak with emergency medicine physician, Dr. Louis Francescutti, with whom they shared Nathan’s story. As they explained the progression of Nathan’s life and his perseverance through addiction and houselessness, Dr. Francescutti shared compassion for what Nathan had experienced and battled through. He knew firsthand the troubles that faced so many individuals experiencing houselessness that were discharged from the emergency room of the Royal Alexandra Hospital, as he believed the streets were no place to heal. And so, Dr. Francescutti shared an idea.  

He told Marjorie and Glen of the Bridge Healing program.  

 Bridge Healing is the system change that may have allowed Nathan to break free from the cycle he had been stuck in for so many years. A place where he could have connected with a community, where the cycle of crisis could have been broken before it spiraled beyond his reach. 

Marjorie and Glen were moved by the possibilities Bridge Healing represented. After touring one of the buildings and speaking with an individual receiving treatment there, they saw, for the first time in a while, a path forward for people in situations much like Nathan’s. People who were caught in the cycles of addiction and houselessness, not just as victims of circumstance, but as individuals who could be helped. People that, if given the right kind of support and systems, could be granted a life-saving chance. 

In the end, Marjorie and Glen were able to take their heartache and transform it into positivity, offering hope and support to those who needed it most. They committed to supporting the Bridge Healing program, matching donations made to support it this Giving Tuesday by five times, up to $250,000. 

While Nathan’s story has passed, the story he helped bring to his family was a reminder that even in the face of immense loss, there is still a chance to make a difference — to change the system, to offer help, and most importantly, to give those struggling the opportunity to rebuild their lives. 

Marjorie and Glen's message is simple for those still in the cycle: You are not alone.  Help is available. There is always hope. And there is always the chance to rebuild, to heal, and start again.

 

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