Remembering Roger Louttit

“My brother Roger was found frozen to death on Bank Street this morning at 6.”

Larry Newman

The above quote comes from Roger’s sister, Amy CharChar Louttit’s January 6 post on her Facebook page.

I knew Roger Louttit briefly in 2011 and he said he was 25 at the time. That would have made him 39 on January 6. Roger and Amy’s brother, George, died in an auto accident last year. Their mother, Pauline Florence Ida Wesley, died by drowning in the Rideau River fifteen years ago. A family marked by early, tragic deaths.

The following is a condensed version of my IMAGE article about Roger in 2011.

Roger Louttit, accent on the first syllable, is 25 years old and defends a panhandling station near the side entrance to the Rideau Street Loblaws. He’s well suited to defence by way of size.

I pass him most days as I come and go on Rideau Street. Sometimes I drop something in his hat, usually if it’s on the ground and he’s playing his guitar, once when he was trying on a harmonica.

My curiosity got the best of me one day and I told him I wanted to do an interview for IMAGE. He looked up at me for a few seconds: “Is it worth 5 dollars?” I was noncommittal.

Coincidentally, we met about noon the next day as I was coming from Loblaws. “Is it worth $7.75?” Roger asks. Odd number that, but later I found out it was the cost of a bottle of wine. We sat together on the bench in front of the library.

Roger Louttit, 25, nearly 26 years old, seems to have more than 25 years etched in his face. Born in James Bay, Roger is a veteran panhandler. His station on Rideau Street has two advantages: good traffic to and from Loblaws and it’s the sunny side of the street. Today, he is wearing one of his neckties, something that I noticed for the first time yesterday.

One of the next things that I learned about Roger is that he does not hesitate to talk about parts of his life. His “grandfather’s grandfather was a Scottish citizen from James Bay,” hence his surname, but Roger says, “I’m mostly Cree.”

He came to Ottawa from the Attawapiskat Reserve on the invitation of his grandparents who lived here. Roger got much of his education on the street. He was a ward of the Children’s Aid Society initially before he got his first taste of alcohol. At first it was only on the weekends, but that escalated until he needed it every day. “I have problems — but I don’t talk about them.” Roger has a younger brother who also drinks wine and who panhandles in the Metro/LCBO parking lot.

Roger learned his panhandling skills from his mother who was tragically found drowned in the Rideau River last year. “No foul play,” the police said. Roger has five other siblings. There is Peter plus another brother and 3 sisters, all living in Ottawa.

Roger says that he doesn’t mind being homeless. It’s not a bad life. “I adapt.”

Sadly, Roger met something that defied adaptation.