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A Tragic Anniversary [1]

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Date: 2023-04-22  

This post was in my news feed today. Written by a woman I met because one of my books on homelessness was in a little free library. She read it and wrote to me that it spoke to her — of her. The book was the first in a series… so I asked her if I could bring her the other three and she could see how the rest of it unfolded.

Today she posted this. It’s pretty self-explanatory. I hope you’ll take the time to read it.

Oh, one other thing — she references getting kicked out of a shitty little hotel to make way for tourists who came to town (and would pay more) for a car show. When you travel for fun — do you ever think about the people displaced in a nation without adequate affordable housing? No. And why should you? Who in their right mind would believe they live in a country where this cruelty is so ubiquitous? So pervasive?

Here’s her post:

“Happy day sweet Earth.

Today coincidentally marks two years that I have been homeless. (Kicked out of the hotel we were staying in by the spring car show?!)

I have a place to be (for which I am grateful.) It is not my home.

Maybe someday I will have that place again or perhaps fate will have it that I drop body still homeless. Stephen has a place to be, I am resentful of that and feel guilty for it.

It's 2 a.m. and I don't sleep much or well anymore. MS or life, it doesn't matter. Nights are long and beyond hard.

“It's not Carlisle's fault that I am here. At the same time, I have never been bullied or treated with such utter disrespect either. Shame on you, I needed compassion. I was locked into his condemned home among other atrocities. Time has gone on and I am mostly sad, profoundly tired.

TWO YEARS. Not an anniversary I ever anticipated after 35 years of marriage but it is what is.

I don't except response, I am screaming into the void again and that's okay.

I said what I needed to say. I mean no disrespect. I was not respected, and it's left a mark. Carlisle is many things, among them cruel and run by the good ol boy system still. I do vote.

“White privilege rules.

“I am among at least 1200 other homeless people in this borough, the county seat. Our numbers include the elderly and disabled, which I am, to entire families hiding in plain sight because you're not allowed to be homeless.

(It is also illegal to kill yourself to end your poverty and misery.)

Cumberland county children and youth will gladly take your children, destroying what ever family structure you may have tenuously hung on too. It's a cold cruel world to us all .

Keep us a thought and lock your car doors to be safe, I do.

I have a car, and one of my pets who escaped being sent off to the unknown.

My heart is broken. I will go on because I have no choice, I promised my children I would.

To finish (because it's now almost 3)

Please be a good people today. Your light is needed.

Happy Earth day!

Two years of homelessness anniversary to me?

Peace for us all.”

[END]
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