“One of my wishes for 2017 is I want to travel somewhere and stay in a hotel. I want to buy myself five big gifts for 2017, five big gifts for me and my husband. Today was perfume day. I didn’t buy a perfume in a while and I always buy myself perfume or earrings, so today I woke up and I said, 'Hmm, I think today is a perfume day, so I’m going to buy a perfume.'

"What I hope to achieve personally is to go back to regular work. I’ve been a housewife for many years and I hope to go back to some employment. I don’t know what I’ll do, but I’ll be going to do something. Maybe back to hair styling, being a hair stylist. I want to go back to being a hair stylist or I can do makeup and nails—no I don’t want to do nails, that’s too smelly! I’ll do hair and makeup, I did it for 19 years.

“I like the people, I like the creations and the artistic part about it that I do, I like just being able to create, and how happy people are once I’m done.

“To tackle homelessness I think the government can hire a bunch of people from Megaphone, and we can hand out care packages such as socks and underwear and some food to give to people who are homeless. As well, meet with an outreach team so we can get these people on assistance so they can get a home.

“My fear for 2017 is that I’m not prepared for an earthquake. Or, that there will be a World War 3. My family was prepared for all of this. I’m First Nations and Japanese, and they’re both really spiritual, and both are talking and following the earthquake, and there’s a lot more activity this year than there has been any other previous year. So my worst fear is the earthquake and World War 3.

“This time next year I would like to have my two front teeth for Christmas. I want to by that time be working on my teeth. I had to get a whole bunch of surgery done because I broke my jaw before. My mouth was sewed together for months, I had to eat everything out of a straw.

“My message would be to all the Megaphone supporters, thank you for supporting Megaphone. The tips are awesome, I got to buy lots of purses and earrings. And a great big thank you for reading—thank you for being a reader and a supporter of Megaphone. Big hugs to you all.

Suzanne Kilroy sells Megaphone at 26th and Main in Vancouver.