CAROL

PHOTO BY RANDY BACON

CAROL’S STORY

I’m from Lake of the Ozarks. This is in Missouri. If there was a way I could get there, I would live there. But I was looking

I was a victim of assault - that is what led to my homelessness. I was living with a significant other and we got into a fight and he commenced to beat me up - for over thirty minutes solid, he beat me nonstop in the head and on my body. I really thought he was going to kill me. I had over forty contusions alone on my head. And then he just left me. He pretty much stole my entire livelihood from me. And I have never been able to recover.

I’m just not physically able to do the work I’ve done before. I have a brain injury and I tend to forget a lot of things. I get confused. Herniated discs. Disability pending, hopefully - I just hired a lawyer. Hope I get something more done this time. I’ve been fighting for disability now for about three years.

So I have been homeless now for years. I have to say that the hardest thing about being homeless is not really knowing what tomorrow brings. There’s no promise, no stability. And it’s hard. Some days you don’t know where your next meal is coming from. One of the hardest things is getting help. There are so people abusing the system and sometimes taking advantage of the resources we have. This is making it hard for the people who really need it to take advantage of those things.

What I have learned is don’t take nothing for granted. Because it could be any one of us at any minute - with an instant of time your life can totally change.