It’s a school day for Nevetha Magendran and younger brother Nithies. Unlike their mother, Praveena Magendran, who didn’t sleep well at the Canadian Red Cross shelter at Regent Park Community Centre, the siblings awake from their cots refreshed, albeit at an earlier hour compared to school days before the fire, when they could walk to class.
Life for Nevetha, 11, who is three days into Grade 7 at a new school, and Nithies, 9, who returned for another year at Rose Avenue Junior Public School, is an adventure these days, more than two weeks after they and their mom had to leave their second-floor apartment at 650 Parliament St. due to a fire in their building that has displaced 1,500 people.