He was sitting in a wheelchair with a sign that said “Homeless, Hungry and Disabled. Anything helps”. I had just finished dinner and had a few slices of pizza leftover that I planned to give away. I asked Michael if he had heard of $2 Portraits and he hadn’t, but readily agreed to participate. And the story went on and on.
Michael is 34 years old, born and raised in Las Vegas. At age 17, Michael and his girlfriend at the time were meth manufacturers and made a huge amount of money ($3M) over a couple of years. Everything was in his girlfriend’s name and when she got busted, he lost everything. He then got sober cold turkey, moved to New York and went to dog grooming school. Michael then opened his own studio and operated his business for a few years. Michael ran into some hard times in that business in New York after joining up with a partner and moved to Florida where he operated a dog grooming business there. In Florida, Michael’s business landlord defaulted on his loan and the bank foreclosed, cancelling all the leases.
With about $6,000 in savings, Michael and April (his wife) decided to travel around the US. In their travels, Michael got t-boned in a car accident, broke several vertebrae and cannot stand for a very long time. They decided the best place to try and get help was San Francisco, one of their favorite places in the US. They have been in SF for 6 days and have received some small disability payments. Michael said his social security and Cailfornia disability payments will kick in late in June or early July. Currently they are living in a tent in Golden Gate Park and hope to find a shelter once their disability income kicks in.
Michael said he’d like to work again, but doctors have told him he can’t - too risky. If he should fall or turn the wrong way, he could be paralyzed from the neck down. I took a few photos, gave him $3 and wished him luck. He shook my hand and thanked me - then dug into the leftover pizza.
Really - I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
Taken 6/9/15
Well, I'll give him bonus points for creativity, but I'm not buying it as a biography. He should market this story to a fantasy editor instead.
ReplyDeleteHi Crow! I said I couldn't make this stuff up...didn't say he couldn't have made it up! Ha ha. Hope all is well.
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