Pass the Mic features the voices and stories of people with a lived experience of homelessness.

My mother was always teaching us how to be resourceful, to be courteous. I’ve been volunteering since I was seven years old, when my mother had me passing out cookies at church. If we didn’t have money for this or that, we made gifts out of paper. We got our orange and our peppermint for Christmas, and we were happy as can be. I joined the Army as a WAC (Women’s Army Corps) in 1974 because I wanted to be a nurse like my mother was. 

I had about 23 different jobs in the Army. My favorite was nursing, but I was also a recruiter, a Military Police investigator, a drill sergeant, then a first sergeant; I even went to Officer Candidate School for a time. I’ve always liked moving around. Sometimes I’ll get bored and I’m ready to go to the next chapter. It’s like an adventure for
me; it’s what makes me happy. I was stationed in Saudi Arabia and Iran in 1990 and ’91. I was the only woman on my unit, but I liked the men I worked with. At some point every night in the barracks, they’d tell me to go to bed because it was time for ‘men to be men.’ They all seemed to think they were my father!

I loved collecting things from my travels: perfume bottles, antiques, little collectibles. I would put them in a duffle and have it sent home by air mail.

But I had a hard time stationed overseas. Eventually I retired from the service, and when I came home, I was still moving around. I’m a Washingtonian, originally from southeast DC. I was a chauffeur in Delaware for a while, driving around celebrities and all kinds of people. I lived here first in the 1980s, and I came back to Baltimore in
2019 when I was homeless.

I was first connected with Health Care for the Homeless when I needed dental work done. The VA doesn’t provide dental care unless you’re on full disability. The clinic here took care of me, though, and now I show up when they need volunteers—the Coat Drive, the race at Patterson Park. I wrote a poem to read at the Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day service.

When you’re helping people and you see them walk out the door with a smile, you know your mission was
accomplished. I’ve sat on some committees, too; I think I bring a different perspective about what people need. I’ve been using a wheelchair for about 15 years now, and the VA finally got me a mobility scooter. But it’s still difficult to get around the city.

The sidewalks between Our Daily Bread and the Fallsway clinic are all buckled by tree roots, so I have to ride my chair in the street. Handicap curbs are damaged all over the city. Earlier this year, my apartment complex where I have a voucher caught fire at three in the morning. But the building manager lost the elevator key—so the firemen had to carry me back up two floors!

People like me have different needs for housing; my living space is my world. If my world is cramped up, I’m cramped up. I’m hoping to move somewhere soon with more space. All my family has passed away now—my mother and my siblings. I spend most of my time by myself, but that’s alright. I go to Bingo, I go antiquing. I don’t have a television or anything. I like to stay up all night and sleep during the daytime. 

I am ambitious. I’m a happy person.

If I could give anyone some advice, I’d tell them to enjoy themselves. Read your favorite book, make your favorite dish; go to the family reunion and keep your family close if you can. You won’t know what happened before you unless the elders tell their stories. And older people have the best stories because they’ve lived it!