FORMER ADDICT'S TURNAROUND WILL ALWAYS INSPIRE

As comeback stories go, Aaron Sigmund's was a compelling one.

Smoking pot by the time he was 16 years old, addicted to heroine by
his 19th birthday and homeless and broke by the time he hit 30, the
story arc of the South Surrey man's life could very easily have no upswing.

He would have been far from the first person to fall into the dark
abyss of drug abuse, never to recover, and would've seen his tale end
as just another sad statistic, another blip on the radar. A tragic
case, sure, but not unusual.

But to his credit, Sigmund was none of those things. Unlike so many,
he fought back from his demons, entered rehab and turned his life
around, to become, by all accounts, a loving husband and doting
father to seven-year-old son, Alijah.

He also became a spokesperson of sorts for homelessness and drug
abuse. He was someone politicians, outreach workers and parents could
point to and say, "See that guy? He's overcome so much - be like him."

He spoke at forums, and also worked closely with Surrey Coun. Judy
Villeneuve, chair of the Homelessness and Housing Task Force.

In rising up from more than a year living in a lean-to on Whalley
streets, Sigmund was good news in a part of town that sees little.

It's what makes his sudden death last week, at age 38, all the more
heart-wrenching.

Sigmund was killed in an accident while working at the Surrey Fraser
Docks, when he was crushed by a hydraulic counterweight.

But though his life was cut so short, his impact on this community
was significant, and will remain so as Surrey continues to strive to
solve its growing homelessness problem.

And in the days and years to come, in times when the cause seems
bleakest and perhaps impossible to solve, one need only to think of
Aaron Sigmund. He was a man who made a few bad choices, but one who
bounced back and, unlike so many others, did not waste his second chance.

And that is something his family, his friends - all who knew him,
really, and even those who didn't - should remember.