I’m destined to be poor
This is Gwendolyn Green. I am heart-sick to share that Gwen passed several weeks ago due to a horrible freak accident. Her family and friends are emotionally overwhelmed by the sudden loss of her life. I am terribly sad she is gone.
There is no way to convey how wonderful Gwen was. You simply had to meet her. She was beautiful in the truest sense of what it means to be human. There was a realness about her. Her deep raspy laugh was very real, so were her streaming tears. Friendships were made real. It’s what she wanted/needed/demanded from people. I always felt more alive being around her.
Gwen in her tent under the Magnolia Bridge in 2017. - Credit: Rex Hohlbein
I first met Gwen when she was living in a tent under the Magnolia Bridge back in 2016. She was 51 years old. A hidden steep dirt path alongside the bridge led down to her tent. At the dirt landing where you arrived, there were hundreds of squashed plastic water bottles covering the ground. You had to cross them to get to her camp. As you did they made a loud crinkling-crackling sound. When I crossed the first time Gwen came out of her tent with a big smile and said, "How do you like my security alarm system?"
Where Gwen was living honestly took my breath away. The views looking out through the steel bridge beams and surrounding trees to Queen Anne Hill and Downtown Seattle were stunning. The inside of her 3-room tent was carefully personalized. There was a mattress, a little dresser, and a stand-up mirror with her daily get-ready-for-the-day items. Next to that a clothes rack for hanging clothes, especially for when they got wet. Despite everything that living homeless in a tent under a bridge brings, including the constant thump-clank sounds of bridge traffic, she had made herself a home.
Gwen was a hard worker and a doer. She went to Green River Community College for two years and received her welding degree. A year and a half before I met her she worked at Pacific Iron & Metal for eleven months. She was the first woman ever hired in the yard. She worked full-time, 6-days a week. A badly broken arm and messed up hand from a bicycle accident forced her to quit. I called Myron, her supervisor, he said, "Gwen was great, really hard-working, everyone here loved her. She was always singing too, constantly saying she was waiting for American Idol to call!" She found another job working one night a week at a shipping place from 2:00 AM -2:00 PM, loading and unloading stuff. With reduced income she used food banks for food and Urban Rest Stop for hygiene.
I met Gwen through another friend living homeless. He was concerned about her and asked me to visit. At that time Gwen owned a dog named Queen, who was her best friend. When Queen gave birth to seven pups Gwen immediately found homes for all of them. She was waiting a few more weeks before separating them from their mom when trouble began.
"Gwen was great, really hard-working,
everyone here loved her. She was always singing too,
constantly saying she was waiting for American Idol to call!"
While Gwen was out doing laundry a group of Magnolia residents went to her camp and took Queen and the pups. They brought them to the Seattle Animal Shelter. Gwen was distraught. She went to the shelter and learned it would be $600 to get her dogs back, money she did not have. She filed a report with the Seattle Police. They told her because she lived in a tent they couldn't do anything.
The dogs were all fostered and then adopted out. Gwen said this would never have happened if she had a front door to knock on. People would have discussed it first with her. They would not just steal a dog out of the yard if she lived inside. The folks that took Gwen’s dogs have their side of the story. The larger truth is that everyone was trying to do the right thing. At the end of it though, Gwen lost her dog and was deeply hurt. As a woman experiencing homelessness, she had no voice, no opportunity to really challenge those living inside.
Through all of that I couldn’t help but think if only everyone had been able to get in the same room and just talk face to face. People would have gotten to know each other, had the chance to explain points of view, feeling each other’s good intentions. For sure people would have seen how much Gwen loved Queen and Gwen would have heard concerns for her dog. It could've been different.
A little over a year ago Gwen got into supportive housing downtown Seattle. It was a big step in the right direction for her. She told me how excited she was to travel back to Oklahoma to visit her family and friends there. There was so much LOVE in her.
Gwen was not just another person experiencing homelessness. Nobody is just another person. It takes coming closer to know that. When people ask, “How can we end homelessness?” The first step is to simply come closer. It changes everything. Solutions once hidden become visible, approachable, and achievable. I want to share something Gwen shared on her Facebook page back in June 2014 and then reposted again in June 2020, saying, “I still believe this to be true.”
Gwen and her boyfriend in 2017 outside the Facing Homelessness office.
Gwen wrote: “Ok people, time again for some more of my insights on stuff. So I've always been of the belief that our paths have been set out for each individual person a long long time ago. Each of our destinies set in the stars before we ever saw them. We are dealt our hand and it is the one we have to play’. Yes, we can play it different ways, many ways. For the most part there are a lot of ways to play a hand of cards. But I have concluded that there are certain aspects of our destinies that are set in stone and no matter how we try to change those aspects they will not budge... What am I talking about? Let me explain...as for myself? One of MY aspects that will not change is that I'm destined to be poor. No matter what or how I play my cards this will never change. It was decided for me a long time ago. I cannot control it. Your immovable, unchangeable aspect of your life may be something else entirely, may be the same. Everybody has a different lot in life... I mean look at Joe Schmo. His entire life he never bought scratch tickets. Never played the lottery. It just never occurred to him. Hell he never even sat sometimes, imagining he won the lottery, what he would do if he ever won. Then one day he gets this compulsion to buy a lottery ticket while gettin gas. Just one freakin ticket...one time...the next day he's a gazillionare. It happened, we hear about it. It happened because it was preordained that Joe would one day come into more money than he even knew existed. Even if he fought the urge and didn't buy the ticket, oil would probably have bubbled up in his yard or something. Where I'm going with this, is that it's how we react and roll with those one or set in stone aspects of our lives, that make or break us. That is what will define each and every one of us. See, I'm destined to be poor. I cannot change that. But I'm ok with it. I'm not bitter. Sure I get a little crazy when I'm against the wall wondering how long I have till my phone gets shut off, counting change with relief when I have exactly enough money to get to and from school that day. Smiling even tho that's ALL the money I have in the world. I still have a smile, and a laugh and glad I'm alive. Somewhere long ago it was decided that me being poor in life was going to make me a much richer person in the end.”
Gwen outside Facing Homelessness office in 2017 - Credit: Rex Hohlbein
Gwen and I talked about the ‘You Know Me Now’ page when it was first taking shape. She felt strongly that we all needed to come closer to understand each other better as a means for loving each other better. She was excited that her story was to be the first on this page and that her photo would be the cover photo for YKMN!
The last time we met she was heading off to Oklahoma. She was so excited to see her daughter and daughter-in-law and others. We planned to get together right when she returned. When she did, and before we could meet, she died by accidental electrocution. We never got to have that discussion. Let's all have it now.
Let’s talk about poverty. What it means for those suffering through it and for those untouched by it. What responsibility do those that have money have towards those that don't? I believe Gwen will be listening in and helping guide us.
LOVE to all Gwen's friends and family.
LOVE to all those reaching out and coming closer.
LOVE to you Gwen.
The story does not end here! Join the conversation on the YKMN Facebook page