Don died of cancer last Wednesday. He was 54.
He wasn’t a politician, a businessman, an athlete or a celebrity. He wasn’t the kind of person that newspapers usually write obituaries about. But everyone knew him, and everyone marvelled at him.
Don was the familiar figure who picked up litter on lawns, sidewalks and gutters on several blocks around his apartment at the Palazzio Italia non-profit housing building on Erie. He used a metal grabber to pick up cigarette butts, wrappers and other garbage and then stuff them into plastic shopping bags.
When he finished one area, he methodically steered to the next area. He filled four or five bags a day. No one asked him to do it. No one paid him. He just did it, every day, rain or shine, hot or cold.