Ernest Adams - the now formerly homeless man who was almost beaten to death by two thugs last year - has finally left his post at the end of the Third Street Tunnel for the last time and moved into a room of his own. And the person most responsible for this, the one person who made this happen, the person who deserves the most credit for this - is Ernest Adams.
Not that many of us did not have a part in this, but all we could do was show Ernest the way. All we could do was help and encourage and not get discouraged whenever Ernest faced another setback. And there were so many, many of us.
But nothing could happened until Ernest decided he wanted to happen. And starting the day Steve Lopez and I took him back to Rancho Los Amigos - Ernest Adams took charge of his own life for the first time in many years.
And he personally - completely by himself - went back to the doctors, went to the social security agency repeatedly, got his checks, opened his own checking account and decided to sign the lease for his own apartment.
But in order to get Ernest to the point that he was ready to take control of his own life - it took a lot of people to help him find his way.
To name just a few - James and Yesenia who did so much for Ernest over the years and visited him in the hospital and brought him in contact with his family back east, Derek and his friends on the Westside with their fund raising efforts and Sakura and John Lee who helped in getting his benefits and in securing the home he is now in with the assistance of the Little Tokyo Service Center.
But while there are many who played a part in this story, this story only has one hero in it.
And that is Ernest Adams himself.
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3 comments:
Brady you are the bomb.
When I found out that Ernest Adams was inside at our last neighborhood council meeting I knew that you wern't blowing smoke up our behind.
You are for real.
All those people helped , but I am impressed and glad to know you followed through.
It can be done.
Good to know he accepted the housing.
You are a treasure of Los Angeles
Where is Ernest now?? I left LA right before the beating. I lived in the Bunker Hill Towers and spent considerable time conversing with Ernest and musing over life's circumstances. Any idea how he is doing?
It took some time to get him into housing - Steve Lopez's columns in the Times details some of our efforts, but Ernest is living in Little Tokyo and he is doing great. And if you search Ernest's name on this blog - I might have more details.
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