The Story

After they took my second leg, I learned to walk with prosthetics quickly.  I started the 2023 season of the Kentucky Highlander Renaissance Festival in a wheelchair.  I left walking.  It is amazing how fast you learn when the porta-potty is across the way and up a hill.  Before the 2024 season, I was back in my wheelchair after falling threw my landlord's deck.  The home I was living in was less than wheelchair accessible.

I was essentially rescued by the VA.  My dog David went to a foster home for veterans' dogs.  My shop and belongings went into a pod.  I went to VA transitional housing.  During my seven-month stay, I was treated wonderfully and met many fellow veterans who also required transitional housing.

I was quick to learn being homeless is not what most people think.  Homeless folk are homeless for a reason.  Some physical, some cognitive, some emotional, some are diagnosed, some are not diagnosed.  When it comes to veterans, we seem to be a particularly difficult group to place because we are a stubborn lot.  I do not think the military does it to us.  I think you have to be stubborn to survive basic training.  Veterans do not tend to accept or ask for help.