A Roof Over My Head is a Gift to be Thankful For

When I was a teenager in the 1950s and 1960s, we lived in a neighborhood where everyone was black due to segregation. There were beautiful brick houses that I craved to live in. We lived in a three-room wooden apartment, with the bathroom tacked on to what had been the back porch. Showering was cold in the winter, so you quickly showered because it was as cold inside as it was outside, with no heat in the bathroom. There was no bathtub.

I envied the children who lived in the brick houses and who had more than one bedroom. Five of us slept in one bed, so I hoped one day to have my own bedroom. There was one house in particular that I loved, with a beautiful woman who lived there. I never learned her name because the people who could afford brick houses did not associate with those who lived in wooden houses, as though poverty was contagious. I dreamed of what her house must look like inside but never had the opportunity to see it. I hoped one day to actually live in that house, the dream of a poor child with high hopes for the future.

Today, when I think of a dream home, I am just so grateful to God to have a home where I feel safe and in which I am warm in winter and cool in summer. I have known what it is like to wonder where I will lay my head, particularly when I was trying to escape from an abusive relationship. It did not matter to me what kind of house it was, how many bathrooms and bedrooms it had, or in what kind of neighborhood. I just wanted a place to raise my children in safety, and I was blessed to find such a place.

Every Wednesday, I travel downtown to study for my master’s degree, and I see countless people lying on the streets with everything they own around them. The last person was a woman who used her pocketbook as a pillow, sleeping as if she were in a comfortable bed. I had to step around her, and my heart hurt to witness another human being in such a spot. I realized that I am truly blessed, so I don’t have a dream home. I am thankful to God for the one I have. I wish everyone had the gift of a roof over their heads. Homelessness is a national sorrow.

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