JOANNE: Introduction
DuPage Emergency Shelter
DuPage, IL
Joanne (37): I’ll tell you what it’s like
Children: Sarah 16, Tim 15, Thomas 8
There are empty boxes and minimal furniture in the two-bedroom basement apartment. Joanne and her three children sleep on box springs without mattresses. It’s been four days since they’ve left the DuPage Emergency Shelter, where they spent the last three weeks.
It’s a rainy November night. I’ve been working on the project for eight months. And it’s beginning to wear on me. Each interview takes from three to four hours. I listen to their stories, sitting on bunk beds, at kitchen tables, in hallways, and in dirt yards. Each story is a testament to a life gone astray.
JOANNE
I.
I’ll tell you what it’s like.
It’s not like you can’t have Reeboks
or a pair of Nikes.
It means you can’t have shoes.
You have to wear the same shoes
with the holes in them every day.
It’s not like you can’t have steak for dinner
or you can’t have lettuce.
It’s that there’s no food in the cabinets
or in the refrigerator,
there’s no money to get it
and God please provide us food
for the day.
Or we’ve eaten beans and rice
or we’ve eaten macaroni until
it’s come out of our ears and potatoes.
Whatever it takes to make it to the next day.
And my kids have gone through a lot.
They say, you know, your kids have to toughen
up. My kids are plenty tough.
So when people say you don’t understand,
I understand a lot.
I understand a lot more than I want.