Celebrating New Lives

By Ann K. Williams
Staff Writer

October 9 -- Though the mighty weren’t cast down, the humble were exalted at a sumptuous banquet Friday morning honoring 24 formerly homeless people who’ve found the courage – and the help – to renew their lives.

Local and state politicians and KTLA newsman Ray Gonzales gave up the spotlight for this year’s award recipients at the Westside Shelter and Hunger Coalition’s (WSHC) 11th Annual Celebrating Success Breakfast at Santa Monica’s Miramar Hotel.

“It takes tremendous effort and courage to move oneself back to civility,” Gonzales told the nattily dressed crowd. “You faced adversity and triumphed over it.”

But the pithy stories of the men and women who’ve survived life in the streets stole the show, and their down-to-earth reflections trumped the well-meaning sayings of those who’d come to honor them.

One by one, the honorees took the stage, telling their tales of redemption with humor and a sense of gratitude to the people who have helped them and to the fate that’s led them so far.

“I thank God to have been a homeless alcoholic,” confided Delois Johnson, honored by Step Up on Second. “Had I not been, I wouldn’t have known any of you, and that would be the greatest tragedy of all.”

A soft-spoken Donna Mendez brought down the house with her description of relearning how to live in an apartment after 25 years of sleeping in Palisades Park and on the beach.

“There are two things we alcoholics don’t like in life and that’s change and the way things are,” Mendez said to appreciative laughter.

Figuring out how to do things like operate the air conditioner and the dishwasher – a task she still hasn’t mastered – are a challenge, and “the telephone is my biggest issue right now.”

Like many, Mendez has occasional problems with her neighbors, only “I cannot just walk away now,” she laughed. In spite of these irritations, she considers herself “blessed.”

Sometime during Carleton Griffin’s three tours of duty in Vietnam, the Navy veteran “crossed an invisible line” when his opium and heroin use that “started out as fun, kicks” became a decades-long habit.

“Vietnam kind of had that effect on a lot of us,” Griffin said.

After promising himself that he’d get help when he got out of the penitentiary, Griffin contacted the Veterans Administration, which steered him to New Directions.

“There was no doubt in my mind, I needed a new direction,” he said.

Griffin threw himself into the recovery process, attending 12 Step meetings and walking the 20 miles from 92nd and Alameda to Santa Monica and back.

His story inspired fellow honoree County Supervisor Zev Yaraslovsky, who chairs the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

“MTA made him walk 20 miles to get his life together,” Yaraslovsky said. “It’s a great tribute to the human spirit that he prevailed over us.”

The stories were as varied as the people who told them.

Sylvia Robinson never used drugs or alcohol, but she found herself out on the street all the same. The award-winning English teacher’s life was jolted by the Northridge earthquake in 1994, when the school where she taught was closed, and she had to move out of her home.

According to Robinson, 22,000 people were made homeless by the disaster. While living in motels, shelters and sometimes in her car, she became unemployable and went through her savings. Thanks to People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) she now works as a substitute teacher in Culver City and Beverly Hills and has her own apartment. And she’s a published author.

Honoree Scott Brutzman ran an insurance company on the Westside and lived with his family in their north-of-Montana home. He was felled by depression, which worsened after the suicides of his brother and daughter, and lost his home.

Thanks to his connections with the Kiwanis Club, Brutzman knew about Step Up on Second, where he turned for help.

“Now I feel like I’ve been on the other side, experiencing homelessness first hand – the negative stigma associated with it is enough to make you feel like giving up,” he said.

Other honorees shared their stories after the speechmaking was done.

After a lifetime on the streets and in prison, John Gutierrez is now learning “to be a father, be a son, work honestly for the first time in my life.”

John Gutierrez (Photos by Ann K. Williams)

The stylishly-dressed 43-year-old with a shy smile said he counsels addicts in the Phoenix House in Venice. Gutierrez is committed to helping his younger brother in prison break the destructive cycle that almost claimed his life.

Mary Mazzucca, a fit, vibrant young Puerto Rican, said it was prayer that saved her, specifically a prayer “to be pulled out of hell.” Her son’s first grade teacher steered her in the direction of Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center years ago.

“It’s been uphill since then,” she said of her arduous struggle to maintain sobriety and care for her children. Now she has her own apartment and runs triathlons – one in Hawaii, where she raised $5,100.

“God shows off through me,” Mazzucca said.

Like Donna Mendez, Linda Abbott is just getting used to living in her own apartment again. “It’s scary to be by myself again,” she said. “In the shelter there’s always someone right there to turn to.”

But it’s definitely better than the street. “On the streets, you feel like you’re just nobody, you’ve invisible, you don’t exist,” Abbott said. In addition to teaching knitting and crocheting, and making “gem trees” for the Daybreak Day Center craft and art sale on December 8 and 9, Abbott mothers kittens, bottle feeding strays until they can be adopted from Rescue Me Pets.

The myriad stories served the coalition’s purpose, WSHC Chair and St. Joseph Center Executive Director Rhonda Meister said.

“The image of homeless people is very different from the reality of who homeless people are,” said Meister. “Most people can look within their own family and find examples of mental illness, a lost job, cancer with no health insurance.”

The only difference is that some are not in a family that “can pick them up.”

Meister hopes that by pulling together “we can create the will to end the human tragedy and suffering.”