He wouldn’t let me take his picture, but his story is worth telling even without a photo.

“I am walking. I have to because I have three discs in my back that are shot and spurs. I had a descending aorta split all of the way through my body, I had a 3 percent chance to live. I was paralyzed and had to learn how to walk again. I no longer smoke. I woke up and can’t move the bottom of my body. It sucks when someone has to wipe your ass. It is good that I am walking today. Life expectancy is usually 10 years, but I am not thinking about that. I was in hospitality all of my life putting in 100 hours a week and did well. I worked hard and partied hard and I loved it, but it catches up with you. We lost everything we had when things went down the toilet, we are trying to put ourselves back together again. We went through this once before but it hurts when you get older because you don’t have the time to rebound. This is a wonderful place to live if you have plenty of money to retire here. We have to stay here because my wife’s job has great insurance even if the job isn’t great. If I had to pay for the pills I took, it would cost about $3-4,000 per month. I can’t afford that. Once you lose insurance, life gets a lot harder. A lot of people are living on the edge. If you don’t live on the edge, you don’t have a conception of what that is like.”