Selma and her suitcase

Note: This is a diptych of two photos to show the approximate scene as it appeared, as I don't have a wide enough lens or panoramic camera.

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March 2013

Selma and all of her possessions, outside a neighborhood pharmacy.

I don't usually photograph "the homeless" or people in distress unless the circumstances might be newsworthy or might help the person directly to receive medical or social assistance. In this case, I stopped taking photos as soon as I realized Selma was in some distress.

This was one of the few times I've felt helpless to do anything effective. She didn't want any help, was gentle and soft spoken but a bit skittish, in her own world, and difficult to communicate with clearly. As I said goodbye she was praying.

There is housing available but many folks need daily assistance to ensure they take their meds, eat properly and coping with daily chores that most of us take for granted. Often that assistance comes from neighbors rather than family, social workers or medical professionals. Even when medical/social assistance are available it is effectively inaccessible without someone - anyone - to intervene almost daily on behalf of these folks, who themselves are incapable of navigating the bureaucracy.

Later that night one of my neighbors came over for awhile, mentally and emotionally exhausted from looking after another much older woman who's struggling with Alzheimer's. Another neighbor had offered to help look after the elderly woman with Alzheimer's but gave up after one day. It's more difficult than most folks can imagine.

The conversation with my next door neighbor reminded me of how finite resources can be - as much so for us as individuals as for organizations and professionals. My next door neighbor struggles with her own health problems, yet routinely looks after other folks, makes the rounds of food banks to collect for others in need. Yet she is herself exhausted now. I told her she needs to take care of herself first and foremost.

I seen Selma around the neighborhood since that March afternoon . I'm hoping this was just a temporary situation for her.

I've been digging through my memory and this may have been the first time I've photographed a "homeless" person, at least in this way. And even that was almost an accident. I snapped one photo of her as I was walking toward her across the parking lot, and immediately realized she was in distress or disoriented. So I put the camera away.

The only other times I've photographed people who described themselves as "homeless", they were fellows from a nearby night shelter and asked me to photograph them when they noticed me taking photos downtown. But none of those fellows I've met, including yesterday downtown, had seriously disabling or disorienting mental illnesses like schizophrenia or Alzheimer's.