I was required to see a counselor as a pre-requisite to get on a low-income housing list. During the appointment, I was discussing the stress I was under due to my situation and my counselor said "Whenever I'm stressed, I take a long hot bath. Why don't you try taking a hot bath?"


"Because I'm homeless.".

A regular at my work just lost her 17y/o son in a car accident. My co-worker said to her not a week after, “I know just how you’re feeling. My son (college age) stopped talking to me six months ago and blocked me everywhere. It’s breaking my heart.” The look on the lady’s face when she said that to her is what broke my heart!

Picture this: I am in high school. My mother and I are told that I have a terminal heart condition, and she takes her own life, I found her body, and my father was away on a business trip for days, and nobody knows where, until they find someone at his office that knows. So I, alone as a teen, have to handle the police, and all that. My dad comes home, decides this is a perfect time to restart his own life, and evicts me. I graduated high school homeless crashing in people's guest rooms and basements. College dreams dashed. My best friend, my only lifeline, says this:

"Will you stop pining about your mother? That was like, 6 months ago. Get over it. I lost my bomber jacket at Clyde's and you don't see me still going on and on about. For chrissake, that was back in high school."

Now in their defense, they were 17 years old, and teens say some pretty dumb things (myself included). But that was the hardest verbal slap in the face I ever got, and was the beginning of the end of our friendship.

Oh, and yeah, the "terminal" heart condition was not terminal, since this was nearly 40 years ago.