Married

During my 40 days I have met some amazing people.
As I said before, the diversity within homelessness is much larger than I anticipated.

There are people with full time jobs.
There are people with temp jobs.
There are travelers who love to hop towns.
There are drug addicts unable to skip their fix.
There are the mentally ill.
There are scholars.
There are students.
There are believers.
There are non-believers.
There are people who are single.
There are people who are married.

I have to be honest, meeting married couples in the homeless community was not on my radar. It’s not like I was unaware of homeless couples, but I was not really looking to find it.

During my journey, I have met 3 married couples around town living in shelters and on the streets. (There are more…but these are the ones I met.)

The first couple was married in a ceremony during the Church Under the Bridge service on a Sunday I visited. It was a sweet service that took place during normal worship. I like that. Why do we make such a big deal about weddings? Let’s start making a big deal about marriage. I posted their photo below.

The second couple I met have been living in the outdoor shelter together for quite some time (although they are not allowed to sleep in the same section or
any contact deemed “purple.” They have been married for 9 years and have been on and off the streets. They have their common fights (usually in public due to the lack of privacy in the outdoor shelter) but always seem to stick together.

The third couple is the couple I know the best. Georgia (whom I have mentioned before) has been married to his wife for just over a year. Due to their circumstances, they sought out the shelter (even from out of state) to help take care of his wife.

However, this was not Georgia’s first marriage. He was married for over 15 years to his first wife. When Georgia and his first wife were pregnant with their first child, both she and the baby were tragically killed in a car accident. They were taken away from Georgia and this world.

Georgia was broken. And rightly so.

Why would God take them from this world?

Years passed before Georgia began to date again. The sting of the deaths were too much to handle.

Then he met Denise…

They dated and got married. They have been married for 2 years and are deeply committed to each others needs.

Denise struggles with deep depression and PTSD—so they hand picked the San Antonio shelter to receive the best care possible.

Being homeless and married creates a hard situation.

For Georgia…that means sleeping outside for months until his wife gets out of the shelter.

Gives a whole new meaning to the vow
“For Richer and For Poorer”

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