She hides her scars beneath her clothing

Surrounded by trees adorned with thorns in Murfreesboro, Tennessee stands 19 year old Crystal Chaney. The Alabama native is maybe 100 pounds on a day she has eaten a full meal. Crystal and her boyfriend David are homeless. - SCROLL DOWN FOR AUDIO

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Crystal has burn scars on her arms, hands and legs from when her father allegedly poured scalding hot coffee on her. 

You often hear stories about people who have overcome massive obstacles in life, but seldom do you meet the folks who have. Crystal has one of those stories and is on her way to overcoming her past.

She never made it past the 10th grade in school, life was just too much at times and education was definitely the last thing on her mind. She told me that coming home to an alcoholic mother each day was one of the many obstacles she faced. Of course, that is after a day in school where she was bullied by others due to her appearance.

On first glance you wouldn’t realize anything was wrong with Crystal, but her coat and pants are hiding the scars that likely haunt her at night.

At 11 months of age Crystal was hit with trauma that resulted in multiple skin grafts over her childhood years. She told me that her father was mad at her mom one night and poured scalding hot coffee all over her. At the time, Crystal was in a walker.

She told me that her father was sentenced to prison and she has not talked to him… ever. Keep in mind she was only 11 months of age when she received the burns due to the hot coffee.

Letters were sent to her from her father, but her mother was said to have kept the mail never allowing Crystal to see it.

Today, Crystal and her boyfriend David are on the search for a job. Needless to say, that employment could not come soon enough so that the couple can get an apartment that will allow for them to stay out of the cold this winter.

Below is a short interview by Scott Walker with Crystal (4 MIN and 47 SEC):

“No matter what, I would never let the people who wanted me to break see how much damage they had inflicted.”  ― Rachel L. Schade, Silent Kingdom

Street Photography: Thinking

Street Photography in Birmingham, Alabama... Thinking

"Diversity: the art of thinking independently together." - Malcolm Forbes

Construction is hard work

He works hard daily doing construction in Birmingham, Alabama.

“If you don't sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes the sacrifice” 
― Anonymous

I asked his age

I could barely understand his words, most of which were inaudible. He spoke with a sad face and his eyes were hidden by the shadow of his hat. He could barely walk, even with his crutches. I asked his age, but it was just a breath.

He has been to the Holy Lands

Lorenzo Parks has been homeless in Birmingham, Alabama since age 11. Today, he is 54 years old.

He told me that he was not homeless due to breaking bridges or causing problems, but instead because of two questions he asked. One question was to his mother when he was a small child and the second was to God.

“She [mom] used to bring me downtown to go shopping, this day was cold – ice - ice cold, never will forget it,” he explained to me. “I looked over there by this building and there was a group of people laying down with covers on them. I stopped and said mom, can I ask you a question?” He went on to explain the question to his mother, “What are these people laying down with the covers on them?” His mom then said, “These are the folks we call homeless.”

It was not long after that question was asked that his mother passed away in his arms. He later went by the same building as a child and without a parent to watch over him and he noticed that people were still there, still homeless. “I then looked up at the sky and asked what these people go through everyday,” he said to me.

Those were the two questions. One to his mother about the homeless before she passed away and the second to God asking what the homeless go through. Mr. Parks believes those two questions led him to be homeless.

Despite his homelessness, he told me he never asks people for money, never holds a sign, he simply lives. “I have even been to the Holy lands, I went with a church,” he told me with a smile.

His life while homeless has not necessarily been bad and he has perhaps lived more than some of us have.

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” ― Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright (1854-1900)

Alabama is surrounded by oceans

Mental illness is far bigger than most of us could ever imagine. Thoughts or ideas get locked inside of the brain of the person suffering and they become concrete as to what that person believes to be fact.

“They tried to expand Alabama, but it fell apart,” he told me in a convincing voice. I asked, “Is there anything outside of this area [Birmingham, Alabama].” He then replied, “I don’t think so.” He then suggested that all of the other states are gone and we, where we were sitting, are surrounded by ocean. “If you walk that way [pointing] you’re hitting the ocean and if you walk that way [pointing] you’re hitting the ocean,” he explained.

He fully believed that Alabama was an island surrounded by the ocean and all of the other United States were gone, crumbled away. It went as far as him telling me that if I got on top of a nearby building I would only see ocean for miles.

“People assume you aren’t sick
unless they see the sickness on your skin
like scars forming a map of all the ways you’re hurting.”

― Emm Roy, The First Step

He has dreams to travel

I think in life we often forget how fragile the world around us really is… How one negative word can change the trajectory of a life in a single breath. How one bad act against another can turn someone already suffering to the edge of their existence. I think we forget that everyone around us has some deep down dream they have yet to live, but want so badly to do so.

This man is 25 years old and lives on the streets of Birmingham, Alabama and he told me, “I have only been to Kentucky, Ohio and once Tennessee, but I didn’t get to see Tennessee we only passed through.”

I asked, “If you could do anything, what would you do?” He paused and thought for a second and then responded, “Really? Anything? If there was a job or a chance – I’d love to travel, I want to see the world - - I want to travel!”

He has never seen the ocean, but hopes to someday soon.

“You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown, that reveals you with yourself.” - Ella Maillart, photographer and writer (1903-1997)