Dennis.
Sometimes you meet someone who sticks with you — I mean, really sticks with you. It’s someone who is there most mornings when you kneel to pray or when there’s a heavy rain outside, and you hope they are safe, warm, and dry. It’s someone who, when you realize you haven’t seen them for a week or so, you ask others if they’ve seen them just because you need the reassurance they’re okay.
One of these people is Dennis.
I met Dennis back before the Shower and Laundry Shuttles ever were, back when Church in the Park met at Beard Brook Park here in Modesto. Dennis was always there every Sunday, sometimes smiling, sometimes crying, walking in his shuffling way, and speaking in his hard-to-understand, too-loud voice (Maybe a past head injury? Effects from a past stroke? I’m not completely sure and I’ve never asked.) And though his volume was loud, his words were mostly kind, and I found myself curious about this man whose life seemed so hard, yet it had not taken his smile. So I knew who Dennis was, but I didn’t really know him until he began coming to the Shower Shuttle.
Dennis giving us a “thumbs up”.
Dennis is smart, funny, and kind, and he has an incredible sense of humor. One time we had been given a few fruit-type cups of black olives from a donor. He opened the lid and shoved a salty olive in his mouth, and as he chewed, exclaimed loudly, “There’s something wrong with these grapes!” and then burst out laughing. Or the time Dean was filming a video at the Shower Shuttle and prompted, “Say Hi, Dennis.” And Dennis responded with a wave and a gleeful “Hi Dennis!”
He shows up with bruises and damages to his body most of the time, but because he shuffles and lurches when he walks, he falls a lot. Dennis has a girlfriend named Joy, and they have a unique relationship; sometimes sweet and sometimes volatile — but he loves her, so there’s that. Dennis is the guy that you wish you could make things better for, but you just don’t quite know what that looks like. So you pray for him… a lot.
Last week when we launched the Laundry Shuttle, Dennis and Joy were there with clothes that needed washing. And, because it was the first week, we wanted to get a lot of photos and videos to commemorate such a wonderful event. Dean stepped away to get a video of them and later, when I was watching it, I nearly cried.
“I’m homeless. I don’t want to be homeless too much longer.”
Here was Joy, doing her best to tell the camera how grateful she was for the Shower and Laundry Shuttles, and then it was Dennis’ turn. Sweet, funny, kind Dennis who simply said “I’m a Modesto citizen, I guess.” He talked about how grateful he was for the shower and laundry services we provide.
And then he said with a hitch in his voice, “I’m homeless. I don’t want to be homeless too much longer.” I truly believe that if Dean had kept the camera on him much longer, he may have actually broken down in tears right there. And I wanted to sob.
Because the fact is, when you are homeless, you don’t feel a part of the community, no matter how long you’ve lived there. You stay on the edge of society … keeping your head low, trying to survive the weather and others trying to take advantage of you, knowing that your choices have left you vulnerable to attack and yet, there aren’t too many options to be had when you don’t have enough income and what you do have gets used up way too fast.
Dennis is tired. He wants to live a better life; a safer and more normal life, which isn’t too much to ask. And there isn’t one thing I can do about it. I can offer showers and laundry, friendship and prayers, but at the end of the day, Dennis is still homeless and doing his best to survive. And the sad thing is, he’s just one of so very many who are stuck in a failing system of not enough housing, difficult landlords, poor economy, bad choices, and hurtful pasts. Yes, we as a city are doing our best to make it better and the options are opening up slowly. But so very slowly, and I pray that something will open up sooner rather than later for Dennis and Joy.
What can you do?
Please pray for us to continue to love and serve those who are stuck in the cycle of homelessness and poverty. And pray, too, for Dennis and Joy and so many others who are struggling to have a normal life for themselves with a safe place to call their own, which is never too much to ask.
Support our work.
As a local non-profit (501C3), we depend on support from people just like you. Give a gift today and help us in our mission to continue restoring hope and dignity to those in need with both mobile showers and laundry … and know we will continue as long as there is a calling for us to do so.
"Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for Me." Matthew 25:40