DANNY

PHOTO BY RANDY BACON

DANNY’S STORY

I’m from Greeley, Colorado. I was born there. I got two daughters that go to college in Boulder and one in the Navy. My Mom got sick and was living in Missouri - that’s what brought me out here. I go wherever my mom goes. Period. And I don’t ask my Mom for nothing. She’s on a fixed income, so, you know. She’s 79 and now healthy as can be. She quit smoking - you should see her now.

I have two great friends, Chuck and Tim. Chuck and we have been running around together for about, I don’t know, two or three years. Tim is new to being homeless and we’re just - we’re teaching him the ropes. We have a cat named CiCi. She’s a camp cat. Two years ago she came in meowing, skinny as can be. We adopted her, and this is her third litter - we just had a new litter on Easter. They were in Chuck’s tent, ‘cause she usually stays in Chuck’s tent - Well, they were in there for two weeks, and next thing you know, she’s dragging them over to my tent. Moved them into my tent. They’ve been in there for, I don’t know how long now. But yeah, we got a kitty. The pet outreach helps us out. They give us food. But she loves tuna. You open up a can, she will climb up your leg. So we got to wait until she takes off in the woods and then open it.

We haven’t had to move our camp at all. There’s never been one police officer, not one thing stole from us. Because we keep it a secret. But the bad thing about that is, what if you freeze to death? You and your bros - No one’s going to find you. So we let the people at Bill’s Place, know where our camp is. Already the lady that runs Bill’s Place came to check on us when it froze. The roads were totally frozen and they still came looking for us. And we were walking, and they turned into the parking lot, and they jumped out to make sure we were okay.

The hardest thing about being out on the streets is watching your friends die. That’s hard ‘cause there’s been four of my friends die this year already. I just had a friend die last week. Her name was Sarah - she just barely got her place. That sucks. Friends that freeze to death - how miserable can that be? You know, that’s the hardest part for me. The cold is really rough. And another hard thing is in the summer, the mosquitos. The other day I got ran off of highway 65, flying a sign. That is embarrassing. That is hard - having to beg for money. A lot of times I’ll just sit somewhere - there are good folks out there. But there are some that are mean.

My advice to people about how to live life to the fullest would be to have love in your heart. That’s it. ‘Cause I do. It’s been a long road. It’s going to be even longer, I hear. I’ve been doing this on and off for twelve years, but now I’m going on six years straight outside. I just want people to know we’re not all bad. All of these years I’ve been homeless, I ain’t never pissed anybody off. It is about loving others. And me and Chuck, we’re brothers.

In loving memory of Danny Gonzales who passed away unexpectedly just two weeks after being photographed and sharing his story for The Road I Call Home. Danny was found frozen to death at his camp by Chuck and Tim.