Last December, after a lifetime of drinking, bad choices, and trouble, the man everyone calls “Cowboy” had fallen so far in life, he was living under the Nevada Avenue Bridge with everything he had left to his name: a suitcase full of country & western clothing and a garbage bag containing five prized Stetson cowboy hats. Then one cold night, someone stole it all as Cowboy slept. When he woke up, he wept.

“I grew up in a very dysfunctional family,” Cowboy says. “Both my parents were alcoholics. I ended up a full-blown alcoholic by the time I was 26, and it did nothing but get me into trouble for more than 30 years: five marriages, two DUIs, two failed businesses, I lost cars and motorcycles. No one made me drink. It was my choice. I drank to escape my problems and shut everything out. It totally messed up my life.”In addition to the drinking, Cowboy was also disabled since he suffered a severe work-related back injury 20 years ago. For the past 12 years, his only income has been Social Security. But after an administrative mix-up last October, even those checks stopped coming. Two months later, Cowboy was homeless under the Nevada Avenue Bridge.“After all my stuff got stolen and I lost everything I had left to my name,” he recalls, “I cried my eyes out and prayed to God to show me the way. He led me to Springs Rescue Mission. Then He led me to Cathy in the Resource Advocacy Program, and she helped restore my life.”When Cowboy arrived, he’d already been sober for five years. Now he had a warm bed again and three hot meals a day. Then Cathy, Cowboy’s Resource Advocate, helped him obtain health insurance through Medicaid and Medicare, sorted out his Social Security issues so he has income again, and even helped him secure a new apartment.“Cowboy couldn’t have done all this on my own,” he says. “Cathy helped me feel like a normal human being again. Thanks to her and Springs Rescue Mission, Cowboy’s back in the saddle.”