Linda O. - A Meaningful Story

Linda O. is a 63-year-old woman currently experiencing homelessness. She was born in Wisconsin & grew up in an all-white community. She shared that she & her family were "poor people in a rich town." Linda grew up in a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house with her parents & her 7 siblings. She shared that her parents had 8th-grade educations, but that they "did their best to give us all the stuff they didn't have." Her mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia when Linda was 3, so her mom spent most of Linda's childhood in mental institutions. Linda shared that since, at the time, there was not a lot of knowledge available regarding schizophrenia, the doctors "fried [her mom's] brain with a lot of ECT" all the way to her death 2 years ago. In addition to her mother not being very present in Linda's childhood, one of her sisters died, which caused her father to become a "rageaholic." She shared that he gave her and her siblings away to cousins a lot of the time so that he could work. She also shared that she & her sister were sexually assaulted by her brother-in-law, who is still married to her older sister today.

Linda was not very interested in school from a young age & described herself as a "class clown" & a "juvenile delinquent." She shared: "in 5th grade, my English teacher said, Linda, some people in school are just not made for it, and that's you." She shared that she always felt pretty left out as a child & not treated very well in school, which is apparent in the previous quote. This caused Linda to become depressed & by 14, she began drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. She shared that she "had a few blackouts" & got pregnant at one point, but ended up having an abortion….

Continue reading Arielle Zappia's full article on Project Why's website