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| Christmas LA Zoo Lights |
Happy New Year, everyone! I
am safely back in Hollywood after a wonderful Christmas break at home in
Maryland with my parents and West Virginia with my friends. It was a much
needed retreat to see the familiar McCoy Christmas tree with my preschool
ornaments, the streets of Huntington that I now call home, and all the smiling
faces that greeted me at the New Year’s Eve party! I sure do have a lot to look
forward to upon my return in July.
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| Reunited with Brett! We did a lot of driving from MD to WV. |
I’ll be honest; leaving my
loved ones was hard. But once I saw the city of Los Angeles out the plane
window, all the way from the ocean, to the Hollywood sign, to downtown, I
couldn’t help but be excited that this city is now part of my life!
We made Christmas cookies with neighborhood kids!
Coming back with a fresh
perspective on what I am doing here really helped motivate me this past week at
work. I am assigned to work in downtown LA every day now, so most of my clients
come from skid row. I was surprised when I went home at how many people thought
skid row was just a saying! I can assure you it is a real place. It is a four square
mile area with more than 20,000 people in the throes of sickness, hopelessness,
and decay. The people I meet on the streets either live on skid row, or want to
get as far away from it as possible. To learn more about the details of it,
please read my blog from September, Go to
Skid Row.
Several clients stick out in
my mind this week, so I thought I might share a small part of their stories.
My first day back on the
streets was Wednesday. It was pouring the rain (because that’s what it does in
L.A. in the winter). So my outreach partner and I were speed walking from one
dry spot to another, looking in our usual hot spots for anyone taking shelter.
That’s when we met Bob. He was in a large street underpass with a few other
guys who were all sitting with their duffel bags and blankets about five feet
apart from one another. I realized we had met Bob once before in a nearby park,
but he had a hat and his hood up so I barely recognized him. On our first
meeting, he didn’t have much to say and obviously wanted us to leave as soon as
possible. But this time in the underpass, he was excited to see us and smiled
as he said we should remember him. We were able to tell him a little more about
what PATH (my work agency) does and gave him our phone number if he ever needs
to call us. I still didn’t think much about Bob until our third meeting on
Thursday. I recognized his hat in the park and went up to say hello and ask
about his day so far. He was the friendliest yet, asking about other people we
had met and chit chatting about how nice the sunshine felt. I looked down and
noticed the book he was starting to read on his lap. It was Sophocles: Oedipus
Rex! I was amazed! This man I had initially written off as unfriendly and
unapproachable, was now smiling and talking to me about Greek tragedies and
philosophy! He said he thought it would give him much to think about; little does
he know he has given me much to ponder as well.
Every person you see has a
story, and you should never judge it by its cover! If Bob has any more
surprises in other chapters, I’ll be sure and let you all know.
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| My PATH Metro LA Outreach team! They are awesome! |
The next person I want to
tell you about is the first person I encountered on Thursday morning. We
started our daily route and a woman in a wheel chair rolled up to us crying. She
was upset because her cat had been stolen the night before. We could smell the
urine from 5 or 6 feet away. Her hair had been poorly buzzed off, probably for
bugs, and one of her legs was very swollen inside her house slipper. She is
older and according to my partner, who lived on skid row himself for 20+ years,
she has been around for quite some time. Her state of hysteria over her cat did
not allow us much conversation before she turned and wheeled away. It was not
an abnormal scene for the morning, but certainly a sad one. I have had to learn
that you can’t dwell on the ones who don’t want help; you can only attempt to
be their friend and meet them where they are. Some of you may be wondering why
someone in her state couldn’t be mandated to check into a hospital and get
cleaned up. But you can only force a person to get treatment against their will
if they are an imminent danger to themselves or those around them. This woman
is still able to feed herself and knows where she is, which means she is making
somewhat conscious choices to stay where she is. Through my new lenses as an
outreach worker, the most encouraging thing to me in this situation is the fact
that she was willing to approach us and share part of her story. We also saw
her later in the afternoon, and I trust that as we show compassion and get to
know her better, she may one day reach out to us as friends.
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| Beethoven statue in Pershing Square where I sometimes meet clients. |
In addition to the first woman
of the day, another familiar client with a shaved head approached us later in
the afternoon. She is often drunk, and has had no shoes for over a month. The
first time we met it was pouring the rain and her socks were soaked. She was
desperate for shoes, but we had none to give. Since then I have been on the
lookout for a pair of shoes roughly her size in our dwindling donation boxes. I
have yet to find any and felt even worse when she told us her birthday was this
week. She also has no interest in seeking shelter at this time, but I am afraid
her alcoholism will take a great toll soon.
I am desperate to befriend
both these women. Their faces have popped up in my mind more than others this
week and I can’t stop thinking about their haircuts. It would be so degrading
to not have your hair. That’s why the Nazis cut off the hair of all their
victims; to dehumanize and degrade them to the lowest level.
I have not found it helpful
to completely put myself in their shoes, as that only causes me to feel
hopeless and sad. I feel honored to be the one who gets to know them and help
them, no matter what state their life is in now. Just like Bob and just like me,
these women have names, and stories, and baby shoes, and families. And so many
of these unlucky people that have to race on by to work, lest they be
unemployed and on the sidewalk themselves, will never get to know their neighbors
in Los Angeles like I do.
We all have those people who
we see around our communities, curious about who they are, homeless or not. So
I challenge you, if they look approachable, ask their name and introduce
yourself! You may be surprised of what lies behind the cover of the book.
