Homeless, Nick and Terri, “MISSING IN SUB ZERO TEMPS.”
I try to keep up with what’s happening to the people that I know on the street of NYC or Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
This is very hard because of distance and time and, just the nature of many of these people, living from one day to the next moving around in search of the basic necessities and impacted by the realities of survival.

“Nicks Frostbite,”
A few days ago I received an email from Sharon of the W-B Red Cross telling me that “Nick was in the hospital with frostbite and Terri had basically disappeared. The campsite they had been using was pretty much demolished. She didn’t have all the facts or know any more. Let me say here that Nick and Terri are a couple that I am very fond of and have been following their lives for a few years now. Through thick and thin, good times and too often bad ones. I made a few calls and the information was pretty much the same.
Skip forward to yesterday 12-19-05. I manage to drive to W-B and my first stop was Nick and Terries campsite. It was a mess with the tarp mostly down, clothes scattered and frozen. Not any footprints in the fresh snow and ice. Looked like no one had been staying there. My next stops the food kitchen where my timing was very good as they were serving the noon meal of the day. I went in and started asking about Nick and Terri. The story was either what I had heard or they had no idea. Well to shorten this narrative. Behind me in come Nick and Terri. Wow! We sat down and talked. I found out that indeed Nick had been hospitalized after an episode where he (luckily) walked into a tobacco shop with no shoes or coat exposed to sub-zero temperatures. He had ice forming on his hand and feet. What caused this he’s not too sure as he doesn’t remember very much. He thinks a lack of medication he was suppose to be taking, probably combined with alcohol and god knows what. He was very close to death and we figured that he hadn’t gotten up and walked, he would be dead. He showed me the black spots on his hand from the frostbite. He is in pretty good shape now. Eleven days in the hospital. As for Terri she fled when Nick became erratic and ended up in a number of places to just survive and had a difficult time locating Nick. I will tell you more of this winter saga in the coming days. Know that Nick and Terri are back together again. They are living now in an “abondominum” (a vacant building). Not sure what comes next for them? I was so happy to see them together and in “one piece.” I called Sharon at the Red Cross and let them all talk on my cell phone. They will hopefully hook up today with the Red Cross and Sharon. Nick will try to get his medications straightened out and I will keep praying and be happy for this small miracle in survival.