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Letter to the editor

Sign in the dirt signals time for change

By CRISTINA SILVA, Times Staff Writer
Published January 18, 2008

Lisa Parker reminisces about the good times in her life, the not so good times and where she plans to go after living Pinellas Hope homeless camp.
	[Willie J. Allen, Jr. | Times]

Some nights, Lisa Parker wakes up in tears inside her tent at Pinellas Hope.

Her new boyfriend, Kenneth Brister, holds her until she falls back asleep.

For years, Lisa, 41, has tried to change her life for the better. She has tried to stop abusing crack cocaine, marijuana, alcohol and heroin. But like some homeless people, her battles have been a lifelong struggle.

"When times get tough, I don't get tougher," she said. "I collapse. Something goes wrong and I want a drink."

This isn't the life Lisa's conservative Connecticut family wanted for their oldest daughter.

As a child, Lisa's stepfather told her that inhaling one hit of marijuana would kill her. Her Catholic, Portuguese mother tookher to church.

But Lisa pursued her own path.

At 13, Lisa could drink two bottles of Bacardi 151 and not pass out. She began smoking pot. She was high, sitting in a car with a boyfriend when two men busted in, pulled her out, and raped her, taking her virginity.

Afterward, she cared less about school. She snorted cocaine for the first time at 17. She started doing heroin. She got married at 18 to an older man who worked as a contractor on her family's home.

"It was my great escape," she recalled.

Lisa sold cocaine and earned enough to buy a house. By the time she was 23, she had three sons and a successful drug business.

She woke up one night to find her house on fire and full of smoke. Her three boys barely made it out of the house. Her oldest, Christopher, died after being hospitalized for a week. He was 8. Her middle son was in a wheelchair for a year.

Lisa never found out what caused the fire. By then, she was divorced. Her son's death sobered her up.

But once her children were grown, she grew lonely. She was living in California by then and was addicted to crystalmethamphetamine.

She eventually met a man on a phone chat line and they kept in touch. In April, she moved to Pennsylvania to be with him.

But it was her new boyfriend's best friend that piqued her interest. They shared a house. Lisa lived upstairs with her boyfriend. Kenneth slept downstairs.

Her boyfriend, addicted to crack cocaine, would lie in his bed all day. He barely spoke to her.

But Kenneth brought her food when she was hungry. Kenneth made her smile.

Lisa made a plan to escape. She told her boyfriend she was moving out. That day, she met Kenneth at the Greyhound bus station near their house. He showed up with a bag of sandwiches to get them through the 36-hour busride to Florida.

When they arrived in the Tampa Bay area, they moved into a $260 a week motel in Clearwater. Lisa reached for her old crutch. She started using drugs again. In three weeks, they went through their savings and were forced out into the street.

Two weeks before they moved to Pinellas Hope, just before Thanksgiving, Lisa saw a cross on the ground decorated with an amethyst stone. She picked it up. It was her birthstone.

"I see it as a sign of hope," she said. "It means something special."

Lisa decided she would try to change again. She would stop doing drugs, drink less. Kenneth promised to help her.

Lisa asked God for his help, too. She prayed that this time she would be able to change.

She also prayed that the late night crying would stop.

Cristina Silva can be reached at 727 893-8846 or csilva@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 17, 2008, 22:49:01]