Street Roots • Nov. 24-Dec. 1, 2017
Vendors
Page 6
let me.”
One of the bright spots in her childhood
was when she was sent to live with her
grandparents in Oklahoma. They were her
best friends. Her grandfather, Abe Mulkey,
was a famous country western songwriter
BY HELEN HILL
and singer who performed with Lefty
S T A F F W R IT E R
Frizzell, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens.
He gave her a guitar and taught her to play.
elanie Mulkey has been through
The guitar was a precious possession, but it
some very hard times in her 30
was stolen when she returned to Oregon.
years. Growing up, her parents
were alcoholics and her mother was also a Melanie is currently staying at a shelter
with her fiancé Aaron. After 12 years of
meth addict. At age 7 she was sexually
being homeless, she has a deep knowledge
abused by adults in the home. When she
of what it takes. “Safety is the biggest issue
couldn’t get anyone to believe her, Melanie
on the streets, that and having enough
began roaming the streets, smoking
blankets. Any person is at risk. There are so
cigarettes and going down every wrong path
many homeless people in Portland, and
she could think of in pain and confusion.
we all get judged. People assume we
Eventually Melanie was taken out of her
are all addicts, but don’t judge me
mother’s home and sent to live with her
unless you know my story.”
father. Her life improved when he started
Melanie and her fiancée
playing drums at the Assembly of God, a
found out about Street Roots a
Christian church on Alberta Street. “Church
few years ago, but she wanted
was fun,” she recalled, “but school was still
to wait until she was clean and
tough.”
sober. “You have an image to
At age 10, she tried to tell the school
uphold when you sell Street
nurse she was beaten at home, she had the
welts to prove it, but there was no
intervention. By fifth grade she was labeled
ADHD and placed in a special behavioral
class because she couldn’t sit still. She was
suspended repeatedly and finally expelled
from high school. She started using meth at
age 14, by age 15 she was on probation.
She’s been homeless since she was 18.
“I wish I could’ve had a different
childhood. I wish they hadn’t been married,”
Melanie said, “but my hard childhood made
me the strong person I am today. Going
through what I did built me up to be a
better person. It was an eye-opener. I
remember thinking I don’t want to live like
this, I want to do something with my life
and be clean and sober. I tried to
emancipate when I was 16, but you have to
have a place to live and a job. They didn’t
VENDOR PROFILE
Melanie Mulkey
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Roots.”
She had been staying clean, but when her
grandparents died, she relapsed. She got
clean again by going cold turkey and she’s
been straight now for 11 months.
Melanie knows she needs to stay sober
to stay alive. She’s had a rough year with
pneumonia and bronchitis, and suffers from
a birth defect known as Chiari Malformation
which causes intense headaches and
dizziness. “I was bed-bound for five months.
If I don’t take care of myself, I could die.”
Melanie and Aaron sell Street Roots at
Peets Coffee at Northeast 15th and
Broadway when they can. They love meeting
new people and sharing stories.
Her favorite story is one she read in
Street Roots about how homeless people
are like weeds growing between the
cracks in the sidewalk. “We are
survivors who are ignored and
on. But we are rare and
t, and we have something
to give, too.”
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