{"id":227,"date":"2022-02-22T13:59:35","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T13:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/?page_id=227"},"modified":"2022-06-29T16:00:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T16:00:14","slug":"homeless","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/?page_id=227","title":{"rendered":"Homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The morgue is the quietest place in the hospital, especially at night. I work as a morgue attendant during the 10PM to 6AM shift. This takes little effort; disinfecting surfaces, loading and starting the autoclaves, and accepting the occasional body from upstairs. It\u2019s not a well-paid job, but once the cleaning is done, no one cares what else you do to pass the time. It\u2019s a good job for a student who needs time to study. That\u2019s what I used to use the downtime for. I was studying to be a nurse and had only one more year to go before it all fell apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I use the free time at work to sleep. There\u2019s a couch in the corner. I can answer the door easily if someone rings the bell to alert me to a delivery. If it\u2019s a quiet night, I can get an uninterrupted six hours of sleep. If there are a few deliveries, it\u2019s not any worse than the sleep your average mother of small children gets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m homeless. I have a full-time job and two part-time jobs and no place to live. If you saw me on the street, though, you\u2019d never guess. I\u2019m not dirty. I don\u2019t push a shopping cart through the street. Sometimes, I look at other people on the street and wonder if they, too, are homeless. How many are sleeping in their cars? How many have found ways to live without an abode?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine how this could have happened to me, but it was quite simple, really. Just a year ago, I was going to school full time. I lived with my boyfriend in an airy little apartment. I had gotten the morgue job and was using it to make the tuition money and have the time and place to study. But working and going to school full-time was hell on my relationship with Jeff. We hardly saw each other. He couldn\u2019t deal with that and so he broke up with me. Well, to be honest, first he cheated on me, then he broke up with me. It was his apartment, so I was out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first I slept at the morgue while I looked for a new apartment, but I soon realized that I couldn\u2019t afford a place and stay in school, so I not only lost my boyfriend and my apartment but also my education. Even after quitting school, the money I made wasn\u2019t enough to rent and furnish an apartment right away. You need three months rent up front for the deposit and you need furniture. I needed a temporary solution while I saved the money up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had expected that sleeping on the couch at the morgue would only last a week or two while I figured out what to do, but it turned out that the morgue office was perfect. The door locked, so no one could just walk in. They had to ring a bell. And most hospital personnel avoided the morgue unless they had reason to go there. It was a safe and comfortable solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I obviously can\u2019t live there, so I rent a post office box and a tiny storage space. I also have a gym membership at a 24-hour gym. This affords me an address, a place for my stuff, and a place to clean up. Every morning I leave the morgue, attend an early morning yoga class at the gym and then take a shower. I have several dog-walking clients, so I spend the rest of the morning walking through the park with corgis and dalmatians. I spend the afternoons in the public library or volunteering at the hospital. If I got little sleep the night before in the morgue, I go back to the gym, sit in the sauna for 10 minutes and then grab a nap in the \u201cQuiet Area\u201d with a book open on my lap and a glass of cucumber water on a table beside me. But, I try not to do that too often. I don\u2019t want to call attention to myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weekends were difficult to figure out because I only work Monday to Friday at the morgue, but I started dog-sitting for people who are out of town, so I often get to live in actual homes on the weekends and cook proper meals. When I haven\u2019t got a sitting job, I\u2019ll stay in an Airbnb. All I need is a bed for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first weekend after the break-up, I was at a loss where to sleep, so I went down to the bus station on Friday and bought a bus ticket from Boston to Williamsburg, VA. The bus ride was 18 hours long. I left Boston at 4PM Friday, read books and chatted with people all evening and then slept all night. We arrived in Virginia the next morning. I went off with a tour group to Colonial Williamsburg, came back to the station, took a bus back home, sleeping on the bus and arriving in Boston Sunday morning. It had been so much fun that I\u2019ve done it several times since. I\u2019ve been to Niagara Falls, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and several cities in upstate New York. It costs about the same as an Airbnb, but I get to visit new places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I use the rented storage unit for the belongings that I took when I left Jeff\u2019s apartment. A few boxes of CDs and books and several boxes of clothes were all my worldly possessions. The storage space is downtown, near the hospital. I go there a few times a week to pick up fresh clothes and put the dirty ones in a duffel bag. Once a week I take the duffel bag to the laundromat and bring the clean clothes back to the storage space. I think the guy who rents the units knows something is up, but since I never sleep there, he doesn\u2019t care that I visit the unit so often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the weekends, I shop for furniture and household goods. I hit the yard sales and open-air markets, looking for dishes, cookware, utensils, towels and all those things one needs to have in a home. I\u2019ve bought furniture at auctions in the suburbs and brought them back in a rented truck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a year of saving and buying wisely, I\u2019ve got all the furniture I need for a small apartment and almost all the money for the rent deposit and other moving costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know what you\u2019re thinking. Don\u2019t I have any friends or family who could have taken me in? The simple answer is no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My family was small to begin with and is gone now. Jeff was my only family. I had had work friends at the law firm where I worked before I started at nursing school, but with full-time school and full-time work at the morgue, I spent any free time I had with Jeff and the old work friends melted away after a while. The one friend I have is the one person I can\u2019t get close to, even though I would like to. I don\u2019t want her to find out that I\u2019m homeless. She is the manager of the volunteer group at the hospital. Janet is about ten years older than I am and she acts like an older sister or a favorite aunt. She is interested in my weekend trips and is always happy to hear about them. She knows that I\u2019m saving up for an apartment, but she thinks that I\u2019m living with roommates and that I\u2019m saving up to have a place of my own. I feel bad about keeping my secret. It feels like I\u2019m lying, but I don\u2019t really have a choice. Janet works at the hospital. She\u2019d have to tell someone if she found out I was sleeping in the morgue. Technically, I suppose, I\u2019m not doing anything wrong. I clean the morgue and accept the deliveries of bodies, and I am there when I\u2019m needed. I think they\u2019d fire me, though, if they found out I was using the job as a place to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janet thinks I should go back to nursing school. She thinks it\u2019s a shame that I had to quit. I think so, too. It\u2019s been hard enough living like this for almost a year. I can\u2019t imagine trying to figure out how to go to school as well. I tell her that maybe when I have my own place, I can manage it. Maybe I can do it part time. In the meantime, I just need a few more months to get the rest of the money together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I arrive at the hospital for an afternoon of pushing the book cart and doing crafts with the kids on the pediatric floor, Janet is waiting for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says, \u201cSally, can you come into my office for a minute, please?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She looks serious. I feel suddenly lightheaded and anxious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I go into the office and sit down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs there a problem?\u201d I ask. Please, no. Please, don\u2019t let there be a problem. Please.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janet looks concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, no,\u201d she says, and smiles, \u201cNo problem at all. In fact, maybe a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA solution to what?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo nursing school and to finding an apartment,\u201d Janet says, \u201cThe nursing school has an opening for a resident assistant. You get room and board in the dorm and a small stipend. You\u2019ll be there to monitor things and help solve any disputes or other minor problems the students may have. As an employee of the nursing school, you get discounted tuition. You could take the money you\u2019ve saved up for your own place and use it toward the tuition. If you don\u2019t have enough money for the entire year, I\u2019ll help you find the rest in grant money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t believe this. It\u2019s perfect. Nursing school is an option again. I\u2019ll have a legal residence. I\u2019ll have to share a shower with strangers, but I already do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat sounds wonderful,\u201d I say. \u201cI\u2019ll have to quit my job at the morgue, though, and also the dog care. I assume I\u2019d probably have to be available in the dorm all the time?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s true,\u201d says Janet, \u201cBut, you won\u2019t really need those jobs if you have room and board at the dorm. There\u2019s an actual bed in the dorm, too, as opposed to that lumpy couch in the morgue and you could quit the gym if you wanted to, too. The hospital has one that is open to nursing students and you won\u2019t need the gym shower because there\u2019s one in the dorm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stare open-mouthed at Janet as she smiles at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know what to say, so I just say, \u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 2018 Liza Cameron Wasser<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The morgue is the quietest place in the hospital, especially at night. I work as a morgue attendant during the 10PM to 6AM shift. This takes little effort; disinfecting surfaces, loading and starting the autoclaves, and accepting the occasional body from upstairs. It\u2019s not a … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-227","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370,"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/227\/revisions\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}