07/26/2025
Coordination and collaboration are key in feeding physical, emotional and spiritual hunger! Sea Glass Initiative Inc. Prodisee Pantry
“Three years ago, I didn’t have this frame of mind. I didn’t have a whole lot of finances. I was blundering through life, just trying to figure it out. Waiting on what I thought was an opportunity. Not knowing sometimes you’ve got to make an opportunity. They don’t always fall off the tree in front of you. You’ve got to be a part of it. And what you contribute comes back to you.
I haven’t lived a bad life, but circumstances hit hard. I was trying to do right, trusting someone I shouldn’t have, and ended up homeless. When someone puts you out while you're trying to make things work, it’s time to go.
I was living in my truck. I’d gone through two arthroscopic knee surgeries, couldn’t work, and had to go on disability. I used up all of my 401(k). Everything I had saved.
I ended up at Prodisee Pantry, and they referred me to the Sea Glass Initiative that helps people become housed again. I am housed today because of them. Sea Glass means the world to me. What would have happened to me if the Lord hadn’t brought me here? They showed me that no matter where I’ve been, I can still go to a lot of places. It’s only the end when the Master sends for you.
I grew up in Red Bay, Florida. A little country town of about 200. Born in 1956. My parents divorced, and we couldn’t live in our homeplace anymore. We had to go live with my grandmother. I was a scaredy-cat growing up in the sticks. When the train came through and blew the horn, I’d run and jump into my mama’s lap. Racism was overwhelming back then. Me and my sister used to play out in the yard. Across the street lived a white family. The old man, the father, would give us food from the garden. But one of his sons would ride by on his little motorcycle and sic a German shepherd on us. I’d run up the tree, and my sisters ran under the house.
That kind of thing could have stuck with me if I let it. But I didn’t.
I worked on a to***co farm as a kid. The stalks were tall. You’d start on the bottom with the brown leaves, stack them under your arm, and walk from plant to plant, loading them into a mule-drawn wagon. It was so hot that some of my friends would pass out. But we did it to help our mamas.
I played basketball. I’d go from practice straight to Ingalls Air Force Base, working as a custodian to help Mama pay for my sister’s schooling. She got into college, and I got good enough at basketball to earn a scholarship at the University of Texas at El Paso. The dream was to go pro. I was in the right place, but things happened.
I broke my left ankle in my first year out there. I was far from home, and I’m the only boy. My mama talked me into coming closer, so I transferred to Troy State. I didn’t heal enough to play basketball again. I got married and moved to Daphne.
Later, I became a police officer in Daphne and worked with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office. But my blood pressure went haywire. Then my mother died. That took the air out of me, and all of that stress got to me. My doctor said if I didn’t make changes, it would kill me. I got a divorce and moved to Georgia. If I could go back, I’d do that part differently. That was the hardest thing I’ve been through.
I’m 69 now. I want to get my CDL and maybe drive a BRATS bus. I’m ready to save and be stable again. What people call homeless looks different depending on who you ask. Even people with money can find themselves there. I hope people learn from me. Don’t just think because you’ve got it, you’re always going to have it. Because it may not happen that way.
I’m starting to enjoy life and go to church again. If a cat has nine lives, I’m on at least five. That means I’ve got four more to go.”
Walter
Update on Walter from the Sea Glass director Michelle Hillman:
“Walter was unhoused for 608 days. He came to us a year ago, graduated from our life skills program, and is working with us to help with transport. He is so great with our clients and adds compassion and comfort for them when we have to take them to shelter or the bus station. He is a great addition to Sea Glass.”
