He was standing by himself in front of a closed business when I saw him, kind of walking in circles. “Do you need a sleeping bag?” I asked. “Well, I probably do,” he told me.
We talked for a while as we sat on the front of the business under a light that illuminated the front parking lot. “Do you have any family,” I asked with curiosity. He got a little glimmer in his eyes as he stated, “I have a sister named Sandra that I have not seen in 15-years, she’s in Chicago.” He told me he did not have a phone nor did he know how to contact her. I asked, “Would you like for me to try to find her and tell her you’re okay?” He smiled and responded, “Sure that would be great – if you can find her, she may have a different last name now.”
Dwayne told me that he is 49 years old and once called Chicago home. However, he told me that he has been all over the place and has lots of past areas in our nation that he called home at one point or another.
I wondered what made Dwayne tick, why was he homeless and what his past looked like. “Do you have any issues with schizophrenia or other mental illnesses,” I questioned. He chuckled, “Not that I have been diagnosed with,” he replied with a smile.
American journalist Lisa Ling once stated, “There's so much grey to every story - nothing is so black and white.”