Street Roots • April 21-27, 2017
News
weight because we were eating a lot of
NWPP secured her a room in a motel for
salads. We had one of those water coolers
a month, and from there, a bed in a long
people have at football games. We had ice in term shelter - Pixel came too.
there - milk, condiments, cold cuts, salads.
In August 2016, a studio apartment
Flip over the lid, and it’s a picnic table.”
downtown, where she was waitlisted,
She was going to AA meetings,
became available. She moved in a month
sometimes three or four a day. By this time,
later.
she had come to realize that her drinking
At 57, it’s the first time in her life she’s
had become a problem.
lived alone - aside from Pixel, of course.
“It had got to the point
“It’s been an adjustment,” she
where I didn’t know what to
says, smiling.
do anymore,” she says.
With help from the Easter
"1 really lik e liv in g
She and her daughter lived
Seals, she got a full-time job
downtown. The
in the car for six months.
buses and MAX are as a pharmacy technician in
Then, a woman at AA who
North Portland. She takes the
spectacular. 1 help MAX train to and from work,
was about to have knee
surgery offered Carolyn, her
out at a church
working various shifts, often
daughter and the cat a room
nearby. I go to the getting home late at night.
in her house in exchange for
“I really like living
lib ra ry ."
help while she recuperated.
downtown,” she says. “The
C A RO LYN W IL L
They spent six months
buses and MAX are
there, during which time
spectacular. I help out at a
Carolyn, who, at times, she
church nearby. I go to the
said, could barely walk, had
library.”
her long-overdue hip replacement. A few
She’s cooking again. “I make hot fudge
weeks after she had the surgery, the woman sauce and cookies.”
gave them a no-cause eviction.
Her daughter, “my backbone, my support
At this point, Carolyn’s daughter was 18.
through all of this,” is doing fine, living in a
“We decided for both of us to survive, it
small apartment with her boyfriend.
was best to split up,” Carolyn says.
Her son, on leave from the Navy, stayed
Carolyn’s church had connected her with
at her apartment for a few days and fell in
Northwest Pilot Project, where she was
love with downtown Portland.
working with a housing specialist to
Carolyn is sorting through boxes from
improve her rentability.
her storage unit right now.
She was on waitlists for housing, but
“It brings up memories that I don’t
there was nothing available. She couldn’t go
want.” She gazes into the distance. “There’s
to a shelter because she was still
still a lot of loss.”
recuperating from surgery, and she wasn’t
But, says Carolyn Will, making a joke
able to climb onto a bunk bed or use a toilet about her last name: “Where there’s a will,
without a raised seat.
there’s a way.” She sighs, smiles slightly
and says, “I had to have that perspective.”
“Another character-building situation,”
she says, and smiles.
Page 9
Wave of Pride .
by Melle
My rainbow is a wave,
rippling to the sunset under the West Coast ocean.
I cannot stop watching the Earth move
My blue, is the motion
My yellow is the high tide,
rolling with the whales
I swim with them
My orange, is telling its tale
My purple is swell in the flow,
swaying there under the perfect sand
I splash in it
My red, is my footprints on land
My green is the East Coast sunrise,
with a perfect wave to ride
I touch the salty cold
My rainbow, is everywhere I cannot hide
A
At Health Share, we
believe good health is
more than what happens
inside your doctor's office.
Good health starts in your
community and includes
staying active, eating
healthy food and getting
regular check-ups.
A
•■'’T t y
5:
Share your healthy habits
with family and friends. We
can all have better health
when we share it together.
health
Better health
together.
www.heatthshareoregon.org
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