Denise’s Last Days [slate.com]

Jane Stevens 3/1/2312:00 PM

By Lori Teresa Yearwood, Photo Illustration: Jackie Guzman/Slate, Slate, February 20, 2023

About a year before her death, Denise Lerma began taking the steps she thought would save her life. First, she quit shooting heroin into her veins. Then she walked as far away from a lifetime of homelessness as her traumatized body and psyche could take her.

On her last day living in Lincoln Park, in Los Angeles, Lerma handed Louis, a friend living in the encampment, a pink balloon. It was her way of cheering him up.

Then she took her boyfriend Paul, who had been living with her in the tent across from the railroad tracks for years, to a Walmart, where she bought him a T-shirt. Afterward, she took him to the barber. She spent the last of her Social Security money that month getting him a shave and a haircut.

[Please click here to read more.]

Add Comment

Comments (0)

<ul id="{%=id%}ButtonGroup" class="button-group h-popup-buttons even-button-group even-1">
    <li id="{%=id%}Okay_buttonContainer"><a id="{%=id%}Okay" href="javascript:void(0);" class="button success no-margin-bottom h-alert-modal-ok-button" role="button">OK</a><script type="text/javascript">
        (function() {
            function {%=id%}Okay_click(event, data) {
            {%=id%}Popup.hide();
        }
        
                $('#{%=id%}Okay').on('click', {%=id%}Okay_click);
        })();
    </script></li></ul><a href="javascript:void(0);" class="close-reveal-modal" aria-label="Close Modal">&#215;</a><div class="last-modal-focus focus-utility-element" tabindex="0"></div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
        (function() {
            {%=id%}Popup = new SS.Popup.ModalPopup('{%=id%}');
        })();
    </script>

Skip to main content

Add Comment

Membership Required

Remove From Your Block List

Manage Follow Preferences

Block

Please wait...