Stories

St. Augustine resident copes with poverty, fighting disabilities and living life

By Ben McLeod | bmcleod@flagler.edu

On a rainy Thursday morning, I slammed on my brakes, almost causing the car behind me to smash into me. I was driving on West King Street, one of the poorest areas in St. Augustine, and I was looking for junk. It was for St. Augustine resident Jerome Richardson so that he could earn a few dollars to buy some food for the week.

The rain drops were flopping up the mud in front of Jerome’s shack, which is made up of four walls of plywood and sheet metal for a roof. He was nowhere to be seen and the lot was quiet. I began to worry, as surprising as it sounds, that this 47-year-old man was in danger somewhere. Why wasn’t he here? Jerome told me he would always be here.

By Holly Elliott | gargoyle@flagler.edu
Illustration by Matthew Boyle

I regret the day I caved into family pressures on Facebook. It was just my stepmother and me, face to face, or should I say, profile picture to profile picture. A bizarre sense of curiosity from her friend request reached me from hundreds of miles away and made me disregard the potential problems that family and Facebook would most certainly cause me. I recklessly hit accept. In one single click, I opened a virtual nightmare on my social life.