Dan Steven

Daniel Christopher Steven was born in London, Ontario, Canada, on Christmas Eve, 1976. Beautiful snowflakes danced softly out of the midnight sky onto silent streets. Twenty-five years later, Dan flew back into that big sky he loved, huge flakes again fluttering down through the predawn glow of street lamps. We who had surrounded in his life and in his death were struck by this sign - a circle completed, a peace, and a journey well-done.

Twenty-five years later, Dan flew back into that big sky he loved, huge flakes again fluttering down through the predawn glow of street lamps. We who had surrounded in his life and in his death were struck by this sign - a circle completed, a peace, and a journey well-done.

Dan was a poet, a free-spirit, the quintessential artist. He was nicknamed ?Smiley? by his camp kids; he was called ?Friendly Neighbourhood Dan? at the open mike at his funeral. His heros were Martin Luther King Jr, Ghandi, St. Francis of Assisi, and Jesus. He was a lover of people and angels, a singer-songwriter with a social conscience, a sense of humour, and an understanding that went far beyond his years.

After Chatham Christian High School where he graduated in 1994, excelling in music and drama, he spent a year playing guitar on the street, busking in downtown London. He sang ?for his bus fare home? through sun and snow. He made friends with the homeless, the newly-arrived, anyone, giving away his few possessions to whomever needed them - Christmas presents, shoes, money, a coffee, an ear. He busked coast to coast across Canada, working at street missions along the way in Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto. He drove from British Columbia through San Francisco into Arizona, singing in the subways and going to peace festivals. In 1997, He enrolled at Trent University, Peterborough, ON, sometimes studying but mostly singing in coffee-houses, pubs, radio stations, and cross-cultural choirs.

In 1999, at 22 years old, after unexplained depression and headaches, vomiting and finger-jerking, Dan was diagnosed with a frontal lobe Anaplastic Astrocytoma brain tumour. It erupted into our lives with a grand mal seizure; a subsequent MRI revealed a tumour directly on the motor strip of the brain. Since surgery was too risky, the doctors started a vigourous treatment plan of radiation and chemotherapy. We spun around in shock. But Dan led the way, handling it all with courage and grace.

He had to quit work but remained stable for three years, precious years for ?Living Big.? In November of the diagnosis year, while on treatment, Dan began work with Toronto producer, Douglas Romanow, to record his songs at the Fire Escape Recording Studio. In August of 2000, Dan released his debut CD, Beggars and Kings. He played a few concerts and many open stages. He traveled to Israel on a personal pilgrimage. He followed his wandering heart to Newfoundand. He began work in London on a second recording, Voices from God.

However, he had just laid down the vocal and instrumental tracks in the spring of 2002 when he experienced a recurrence of symptoms. In August, an emergency MRI showed five new tumours. A new chemotherapy had no effect. Over the next three months, he slowly lost his ability to walk, to sing, to speak. Faithful friends and family came to party with him and held a benefit concert. All this time, Dan was at peace, imparting strength and courage to us to do what we had to do - carry him Home. The last time Dan was out of the house was to fulfill another dream, going to the stage performance of The Lion King in Toronto.

On Dec. 6, 2002, after a two-day coma at home in London, surrounded by family, three weeks shy of 26 years old, Dan was released. On Dec. 9, we honoured his request to ?dance at my funeral? as he had written so prophetically in a song at age 17. A bus was arranged to take the many street friends, along with five hundred other mourners, to the cemetery for their final respects. His friends made angels in the snow and cut off hair to place on his casket. Bear angels and kites, sunflowers and Christmas ornaments now decorate the tree above his grave.