So it’s been a while since I posted anything to the blog. I’ve been travelling about with my fellow pilgrims to the UK and also on a church mission trip to Mountain Top. If you’d like to read the blogs from those trips to see what I’ve been up to please head on over to www.stepoutofthetraffic.com. It’s been really good to visit with some old friends and make new friends while traveling.
Along with the traveling, things have been out of sorts in Nashville since the floods. At first it was pretty easy keeping up with most of my homeless friends because most of them were at the main emergency shelter site. When that shelter closed, things started getting a little dicey. Most got varying amounts of money from FEMA, the lucky ones got temporary hotel vouchers, and the really fortunate ones got housing vouchers. Without everyone being in a centralized location, it’s been hard to keep up with people though.
I have managed to do so with a few of them for which I’m grateful. As some of you may know, they did get a temporary location for Tent City in Antioch which was still located central enough for people to have access to public transportation, etc. The folks around them didn’t like it so they had a judge tell them they had to leave which I find amusing because I went out to the area where the news reported Tent City to be and couldn’t find them. I was deliberately looking and couldn’t find my friends. By the time I had made enough phone calls to find them I was headed out of town again and now they are gone but no one can tell me where (even some that were staying at the site in Antioch don’t know) so I’m back to square one finding Tent City again.
The people I have kept up with are handling the summer heat as best they can, some better than others. There is one man in particular I’d like to tell you about. His name is Jerry.
I met Jerry several months ago when I started going into Tent City. He was always very quiet, would never quite look you in the eye, and basically kept to himself. After many visits, he started coming out of his shell the day I had unfortunate encounter with one of the dogs down there (we’ll just leave this one alone, I didn’t get bit thankfully but it wasn’t pretty). I think my reaction and the fact that I kept coming, laughing off the situation after everything calmed down helped Jerry to see that I wasn’t easily scared off and I might be someone he could trust because he started having conversations with me right after that.
Then came the floods and Jerry got separated from everyone. He landed at the men’s mission where he was working as much as possible doing day labor across the street. He really was trying his best to do the right thing. The mission is a hard place though and he got in trouble there when he settled an old score. At this point he had no where to go so he started living on the streets of downtown doing the best he could with what he had. He would occasionally call asking if I had any clothes or I would simply find him downtown and give him water sticking around to see how things were going.
I’ve watched his situation get progressively worse. He’s been sleeping on a roof in downtown Nashville not mixing with the best people. His drinking has picked up as a means of coping with life and he’s quit eating. He gets about 2 hours sleep a night and is very paranoid because his body and mind are not getting the bare necessities.
He has a son, Jacob, that I’ve met who Jerry thinks the world of and a degree in Theology. He’s had a good job in the past, a house, a wife, insurance, all the things and more that most of us enjoy every day. I’ve watched Jerry hit rock bottom.
He had hopes of getting it back together but the streets, the fighting (I’ve taken him to get stitches after being stabbed), the drinking, everything he deals with on a daily basis finally wore him down to the point where every time I saw him he told me he wished someone would put a gun to his head, go ahead and end it for him because he couldn’t do it anymore.
Finally Jerry asked for help. I tried hard to get him help. I found a place that would take him no insurance, no money. Wait he’s still drinking – no go. Must go to detox first. Found another place. Wait he’s got health issues – yes he’s had 2 heart attacks living on the streets and he’s got the stitches I took him for the day before. Found another place. Wait – they have a 30 to 40 day waiting list and you have to apply in person with an application fee and they only take applications on certain days of the week between certain hours and with the holiday it will be a week before he can even apply. Thank you very much. After going through all that the bottom fell out of Jerry’s hope. I reminded him I’d be leaving to go out of town and I’d see him when I got back but he told me I wouldn’t because he didn’t plan on being alive. It was the hardest thing to go out of town not knowing if he’d be alive when I came looking for him again.
I tentatively checked my voice mail while away and I’ve jumped every time my phone has rang since I’ve been back until I found him today. A flood of relief swept over me when I saw him sitting there. He was shocked to see me, wanting to know throughout our conversation why I came. My standard answer – because everyone should have someone that cares about them and you’re worth it, I’m your someone. He always responded that no one cared about him. I always countered that I do. After spending about an hour in conversation, we got around to talking about getting him some help again. He still wanted it, I still wanted to help him find it. We wound up at Room At The Inn. How different from the last go around. They took him, no questions asked, just took him. Offered him food, offered him water, offered him a bed. I realized while I was on my mission trip that I needed to have more faith in God to help me with this situation, I prayed for it, and look what happened…it had to be God so maybe it wasn’t just a good day but a God day. I hope he’s resting, I pray he stays, I have faith God can take care of him.
