“I got hit by a semi-truck right over there [pointing towards a gas station] – I’m not gonna’ lie, I was drink-ing, I’m an alcoholic,” he told me in the heat of the drowning sun on Saturday afternoon. It was 96-degrees outside, but the heat index was at about 98.
“How long have you been drinking,” I asked… “Since I was about 9,” he said with a slight pause. He then sat up and said, “My wife is mad at me because I have not made enough money out here, well – she’s really my girlfriend.” He laughed a little and said, “But, you know how women are.”
Rowy currently lives in a wooded area behind a local store and he battles gravel and grass to get to his campsite in his wheelchair each afternoon.
After Rowy was hit by a truck, they installed a metal rod in his leg which is now badly infected. His right foot is painfully swollen and he cannot walk on it, which explains the wheelchair. Several weeks after getting hit by the truck, he was struck by a car which left him with two untreated broken ribs. To make matters worse for Roy, he was just released from the hospital after throwing up blood. Doctors told him it is likely related to liver problems, also untreated.
“My family lives out of state, but I talk to my dad… I have a cell phone,” he said while tearing up. “Do you want to see them again,” I asked. He thought about the question for a minute, “I do, but I did bad stuff before I left [looking down at the ground].”
English comedian Russell Brand once described alcoholism as uncontrollable:
“The mentality and behavior of drug addicts and alcoholics is wholly irrational until you understand that they are completely powerless over their addiction and unless they have structured help, they have no hope.”