It is tragic to hear of the death of Marilyn Holsten, and I can believe her life was a “living hell” (The Province, August 26).

Her death is tragic because Marilyn was a real fighter and displayed incredible strength as she took on the eviction, and the federal medical marijuana program. MLA Jenny Kwan and I visited Marilyn and tried to get the provincial and federal governments to get better home support for her and approval for medical marijuana.

Ironically, we just got a copy of the letter from the federal health Minister today, saying she had been approved for the medical marijuana program, in late June. It is a telling story of our health care system, that Marilyn had to contend with so many obstacles and barriers, when she was so debilitated and just needed security and medical support.

I feel very saddened that her life ended this way.

It is a great source of Eastside Pride that the Hastings Little League has made it to the Little League World Series in Pennsylvania.

I can attest to the wonderful community spirit and dedication of the teams, players, coaches and parents of the Hastings Little League having attended some of their games and openings. They are truly a community based and run league, with a great history. Their accomplishment and participation in the World Series in Pennsylvania even made it onto the front page of the Globe and Mail, August 22 -a great story about Katie Reyes and her family. The only part of the story that was totally out of place was the sentence….”They live near Hastings Park diamond where the team plays roughly four kilometres from the epicentre of Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside”. Now, why would the Globe insert that? The story has nothing to do with the Downtown Eastside whatsoever! Though both neighbourhoods are in the federal riding of Vancouver East, they are quite different and physically far apart. They are both great communities – but somehow the Globe just had to slip in the “notorious” element.

I have seen other Globe stories where the Downtown Eastside was described as “sleazy”, “seedy” and the like. This is another example of old style, sensationalized journalism that should be long gone from the Globe.