"Have You Seen My Son?"

We are a remarkable and resilient people.  When the storms in life come to blow away our dreams, we build new ones.  We are inherently good and kind, always looking for an opportunity to lend a hand in the service of our fellow man.  We love our children and as we tuck them safely in their beds at night, we pray that no harm will come to them.  

We plant our gardens, water our flowers, and wave affectionally to our friends and neighbors. We defend our country and the people who live in this great land, even at the sacrifice of our own lives.  

We are a people of abundance, living in a world that overflows with resources. For those fortunate enough to be living the American dream, their world keeps spinning around and around, but this is not the perspective of all those who live in this world. There are many homeless wanderers who suffer beyond compare and their childhood dreams have become nightmares. 

They walk the city streets with no destination in mind for there is no place for them to go.  They have nothing to shield themselves from the cold and constant hunger is one of their greatest enemies.  They may go several days without food as the pain in their abdomen feels like shards of glass against the lining of their stomach.  

Each day becomes another burden while the judgements of mankind fall upon their shoulders and adding to their overwhelmingly heavy load.  No one would choose this lot in life!  While their days are filled with confusion and their nights with fear, they live in a world that is spinning wildly out of control.  This was the black abyss that consumed my son, Jared, when he was only 24 years old. 

He was extremely bright, articulate, and full of promise.  A few weeks after high school graduation, he was hired by an architectural firm and later moved to Arizona where he held a promising position with Charles Schwab.  We were amazed with his abilities and there seemed to be no limit to his talents.  Jared was living the American dream until one day his life unraveled, one broken thread at a time, and within a matter of a few months his world was completely destroyed!  Jared’s gifted mind was slowly being devoured by a severe form of mental illness called schizophrenia. 

The madness began in the fall of 1999 when he noticed a high pitched ringing sound in his ears; this made it very difficult for him to sleep during the night and impossible to concentrate in the day.  Then he began to hear voices chattering in his head and he perceived things that were not tangible.  At first these experiences were random, but they became more frequent until it was impossible for him to formulate his own thoughts.  The illness increased his anxiety with such intensity that he tried desperately to hide the symptoms from our family and he began to withdraw from all forms of personal interaction.  

Jared isolated himself from the world around him, becoming extremely paranoid, accompanied by obsessive and compulsive behavior.  It was not long until his condition worsened and it became impossible for him to preform at work.  One day, he walked away from his life and into the city streets without looking back!  

He disappeared from our family’s radar and as the months passed by they turned into years; there were times when we didn’t know if he was dead or alive.  People who live on the streets seem to have an uncanny ability to disappear into thin air and Jared was no exception.  I would lay awake nights and cry myself to sleep wondering where my son was and what living hell he must be going through.  

Do you have any idea how many prayers a mother can cry out over a period of eleven years?  I can tell you exactly how many!  I prayed that he would fall into the hands of good people who would truly see beyond his outer appearance and into the center of his soul, that they would have mercy on him.  I prayed for him to come in contact with those who could feel the burdens resting upon his shoulders and reach out to ease his pain.  I prayed that if he were hungry, a kind stranger would offer him food and clean water to drink.  I prayed when it was cold that those of abundance would share their warm clothing with him and he would have a soft place to rest his head, but the most important prayer that left my lips was that Jared would come home safely to our family!  We all loved him and he deserved to be loved!  

When we found Jared in November of 2008,  he was hardly recognizable, with little resemblance of the beautiful man that was our brother and son.  His life on the streets had afflicted his health and taken it's tole; his appearance made one believe he was a man between the ages of 55 to 60 years old!  His handsome six foot frame weighed slightly over 120 pounds and by then his level of communication was nearly incoherent.  Jared had been beaten and robbed several times and living day to day on food from the food banks.  The light in his eyes had gone completely dim and he resembled that of a frightened child!  

I appealed to the judge for a court order to sentence Jared to the hospital for evaluation, but getting the courts to take action against someone’s will is very difficult and Jared would not voluntarily admit himself into a clinic.  Finally, the judge signed the order and he was placed in the hospital for mental evaluation and treatment.  Today, he has regained his mental health and through the proper medications he is living a healthy and constructive life.

Statistics show that over 54 million people suffer from mental health issues in the United States alone and over 2.5 million of those cases are diagnosed with schizophrenia.  Most commonly, this disease affects young productive individuals in their early twenties and without signs of warning it becomes a silent destroyer. 

Many people who suffer from this debilitating illness are living on the streets.  Due to the nature of this disease, they fail to recognize that they are seriously disabled.  There are thousands of parents who spend their lives searching the streets and asking the frightening question, “Have you seen my child?”

The next time you see someone less fortunate than you along the roadside, will you remember Jared’s story?  There are those who walk among us and each day is an uphill battle.  They may be pushing all their earthly belongings in a shopping cart or reaching out for a little spare change, perhaps they are holding a sign requesting something specific.  Giving then a little bit of "something" is better than leaving them with a lot of nothing!   

Will you be so kind as to rise above the judgements of the world and stretch out your hand to comfort this soul? For this person is a child of God!     by, Linda Sumner Urza, One Fine Day

"I once cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet."