Norman Cartier

Norm Cartier, June 4, 1954 – May 26, 2025

I met Norm at Davenport-Perth United Church just after they passed the Law of Gravity. Norm lived at Covenant House on Pauline Avenue in the Bloor-Dufferin area of Toronto. (No connection to Toronto’s current Covenant House.)

Davenport-Perth United Church set up Covenant House as a Christian outreach in the community. Its residents were Valerie Bannert (August 28, 1928 – February 17, 2018), Mary Ellen Nettle (June 1, 1929 – May 3, 2006), Arnie Chamberlain (December 20, 1950 – January 20, 2021), Norm Cartier (June 4, 1954 – May 26, 2025 and Graham Reddoch who is healthy and still on this side of the grass.

I spent a lot of time with Arnie, Norm and Graham discussing religion and philosophy. Sometimes I would discuss these topics with Valerie and Mary Ellen, but most discussions were with the boys.

Not one of them could give me a satisfactory answer to the following question:

If God is almighty and all-powerful, then how could Satan engage in battles against God and occasionally win?

Because I did not accept Jesus as my saviour, some said that I could ask Satan that question after I died.

I lost contact with Norm in the late 1970s. He moved down east and became a trucker. I had no idea he was married and living in Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan, until a friend sent me the death notice.

I remember Norm telling me what he used to do as a young boy, still living at home. His parents often invited people over whom Norm did not like. He never gave the reasons why he disliked these people.

Whenever these unlikeable people visited, Norm said, “When no one was looking, I would go into the coat closet, take their coats and fart in the pockets. I showed them!”

Dear Norm,

The next time we meet, you will have to tell me what you do to unlikeable people in the afterlife. No one there wears a coat.

Godspeed

-267-

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