Homeless man at home with Stratocaster
Stephen Ralph runs his fingers over the strings of the Fender Stratocaster."This feels really good. It's been a long time."
GARRET MATHEWS / Courier & Press Stephen Ralph plays his expensive guitar he keeps for safe keeping at a local pawnshop. Ralph, a 37-year-old native of California, is homeless and lives at the United Caring Shelter in Evansville. When he is not at the library or looking for jobs, Ralph will visit his instrument and play outside the shop.
Ralph had nothing better to do on this cold afternoon, so he paid a visit to his instrument.
"Some people ask me, 'Hey, maybe you could get a couple thousand bucks for it and get back on your feet.' I shake my head to that. I play music. The guitar is part of who I am."
He says he had a double major of English and music at San Bernardino Valley College. His favorite courses were guitar theory and music composition.
"I played in some bands. Had some fun. But that's a long way in the past."
It's lunchtime at the United Caring Shelter in Evansville. Several dozen men and women dig into their helpings of spaghetti.
Some are just here for the meal. Ralph is one of 62 men who spend the night. He's been a resident since June.
"I was a pharmacy technician in Los Angeles. I wrote songs for commercials. I had a good life."
Then, four years ago his mother died.
"We were very close. She had leukemia and was slowly slipping away. When I wasn't working, I was caring for her. I took her passing badly. I couldn't deal with it."
Ralph says his drinking intensified until he was consuming a half-gallon of gin a day.
"Because of the alcohol, I made a lot of questionable decisions. Everything escalated in a negative direction."
He says he took a bus from Los Angeles to Kansas City, where he spent three months at a rescue mission.
He went to Nashville, Tenn., and lived six weeks at a shelter before coming to Evansville in February.
"I went through the 12-day program at Stepping Stone. I had the DTs and couldn't sleep and was pretty much a wreck, but the treatment worked. I haven't had a drink since the summer."
Evansville, the well-spoken man says, is a good place to stay if you must be homeless.
"There are outreach teams that give you health checkups and dental care. I couldn't find my birth certificate, and I got help with that. There's no maximum time to live at United Caring. When I was in Kansas City, the mission made you sign up for the right to have a bed the next night. It was like having the winning raffle ticket to get out of the cold."
Ralph finishes the last of his salad.
"I'm a spiritual man. I go to chapel. I believe in my heart that 2009 will be a better time for me."
Other than the guitar, he has very few possessions other than clothes. He earns $50 a week selling plasma, "but right now I'm pretty much broke."
Ralph spends most days at the library, where he uses the computer to put in job applications. He also checks out books.
"Reading is free," he says, grinning.
Tightening his black overcoat, Ralph looks around the cafeteria at the shelter.
"There are lots of people in this room who held jobs in different fields — welding, roofing, whatever — and now there's nothing for them. I could just as easy be homeless because of the tough economy instead of the alcohol."
Ralph says he tries to keep a positive attitude.
"If you live in a place like this with no hope, it's easy to give up. If I have a poor mindset, how can I expect anything to change? Regardless of how devastated you feel, you have to hold your head up."
He says he has 12 years of experience in the pharmacy industry, with much of that time at hospitals.
"I have a world of experience. But facts are facts. If you put down a homeless shelter as a residence, that's a big strike against your job search."
He says he has "one nice outfit" that he wears at interviews. "I've probably had three or four face-to-face sessions with the people who hire. Sometimes I walk to the interviews and sometimes I borrow a bicycle. So far it's been nothing, but it's not for the lack of trying."
Ralph has felt the stigma that's attached to men and women who are homeless.
"The reality is that this happens to a lot of people. The public is misinformed. The public has preconceptions.
The goal, he says, is to return to California when he can afford the $200 for a bus ticket.
"But since I'm in Evansville, why not pull myself up right here? At least I don't have to worry about where I'll sleep every night."
