Celebration of life for ‘guardian angel’ of Surrey’s 135A Street

WHALLEY — A celebration of life is planned for Doug Nickerson on Dec. 1, a man who has been called the “guardian angel” of 135A Street.

Nickerson passed away days after being awarded the City of Surrey’s Heart of our City Award on Oct. 26, for saving more than 100 lives on the Whalley Strip.

The celebration of life is set for 2 p.m. at Surrey Urban Mission Society (SUMS), located at 10776 King George Blvd.

Erin Schulte, founder of a Pop-Up Soup Kitchen along 135A Street, is helping promote the event.

She said celebrating Nickerson’s life is important for all that call 135A Street home.

“He was one of them,” she said, “a highly respected family member whose loss has had a profound affect on his street family. Doug was not only highly respected by the homeless on the Strip but was also held in high regard by members of the RCMP, the Front Room, Surrey Urban Mission and so many other resources out there.”

Schulte said it’s an honour to help put together this event in Nickerson’s name.

It will be “a time for people to share who Doug was to them and how he affected their lives,” notably, many whose lives he saved with the overdose reversal drug naloxone, she said.

“To know him was to love him and for that it is a privilege to help in any way possible to keep his memory alive,” Schulte added.

SUMS director Michael Musgrove said the decision to hold a memorial event was done with hesitancy.

“I kept having people come to me and ask,” he said of an event. “I was keeping it at arm’s length, not wanting to offend anyone.”

But after several weeks went by, he decided to go head.

“Someone came to me this week, one of my staff, Roberta, and she said, ‘Mike I have to stick my nose into this. We gotta do something.’ I said yes. I was waiting and trying to be respectful. Before we’ve all moved past it, we need to do something.”

The event will likely be an open mic, said Musgrove.

“I’m sure it will become a community event,” he said. “We’ll host it and I’ll certainly speak if that’s something people want me to. If not it’ll be kind of an open mic, and I’ll just emcee it.”

And although the mission is known for feeding folks in the area, food will be intentionally absent at this event.

“What tends to happen in our building, because we’re notorious for attracting food, is becomes a food event and people come for that reason,” he said. “This event will be pure memorial and people will be there for the right reasons…. It can become whatever it becomes.”

Having been saved five times by naloxone in his life, Nickerson was known to walk the notorious strip in Whalley on 135A Street with a naloxone kit, reversing overdoses and teaching others to do the same.

Musgrove fondly recalled Nickerson’s naloxone “swung like pistols on his belt, ready to fire at the first opportunity.”

He was a “pioneer” of the overdose antidote, using it long before the fentanyl epidemic, said Musgrove.

The cause of Nickerson’s death is not yet publicly known.

In April of 2017, Nickerson was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

He was given six to 12 months to live.

Despite that, Nickerson still spent his days bringing people back from the dead.

A GoFundMe Page was started for ‘Little Doug’ last summer, with the funds intended to send him to Nova Scotia to visit his parents one last time before his passing.

Identification issues prevented him from taking the trip, and then his low energy levels prevented him from making the visit.

Donations are now said to have now been given to Nickerson’s family to cover the funeral costs.

In an interview with the Now-Leader last July, Nickerson talked about his struggles with addiction.

He also spoke of being a born-again Christian, raised as a Baptist preacher’s child.

“That’s what gives me the strong standards that I have today,” said Nickerson. “That, you’ll have to thank my parents, for the way they brought me up.”

-With files from Tom Zytaruk

amy.reid@surreynowleader.com
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