Joseph
Hi, My name is
Joseph.
You are healing brokenness. All Joseph knows is that his father was an alcoholic, and he is too. In fact, it killed his dad. His death was tough on Joseph, and no doubt, his mother, too. It wasn’t too long after that she gave Joseph to his aunt to raise – at about age 6. “I really felt abandoned,” Joseph remembers. “My aunt took me in until she died of cancer when I was 16. I’ve been on my own ever since.” They’re scars that never really healed. “For a long time, I’ve felt worthless.”
Alcohol only dulled the pain. It never really took it away, and it couldn’t get him through a series of events that brought him to Philly House.
“I lost my job,” Joseph tells us. “I installed carpet and flooring. After 36 years my knees were shot.” That led to his divorce and giving up his most precious relationship – the connection with his son.
He went to Atlantic City, just to get away. “I slept under the boardwalk.” He finally went to a local shelter, but there was a problem. “They told me that they couldn’t have me there because I wasn’t from Atlantic City.”
“I just got my own place. I don’t feel even the need to drink anymore. My goal is to be the Joseph I was when I wasn’t drinking, so I can be a great father to my son.”
Joseph returned to Philadelphia, despondent, but with one other person to turn to, his brother. “I called and called and never got an answer, so I went to his house,” Joseph reports. “I found his body. He committed suicide.”
That’s when he checked into Friends Hospital. “Friends Hospital got me back on my meds, but they couldn’t just turn me back onto the streets. They brought me to Philly House.” The staff welcomed Joseph and is meeting his practical and spiritual needs.
“Philly House has been great!” Joseph says with enthusiasm. “I have a case worker, and I go to Drexel Medicine for another case worker, a counselor, and a psychiatrist. While I’m here I volunteer in the kitchen, and in the dining room – anything they need me to do.” Joseph’s also gotten his disability claim approved. “I was rejected twice, but I finally got approved when I saw the judge.”
What’s next? “I just got my own place.” But there’s more… what’s really important. “I don’t feel even the need to drink anymore. My goal is to be the Joseph I was when I wasn’t drinking, so I can be a great father to my son.”
Providing Unconditional
Refuge and Hope
Help us provide hope to the homeless, hungry and hurting of Philadelphia.
