When the Places for People outreach team found Chandra Thirdkill, she was about 40 years old and had been homeless for two years. Her struggles, however, began as a teen. Everyone looked at her like she was ugly, she thought. No one liked her. She constantly got into fights.
Thirdkill dropped out of high school, turned to alcohol and drugs and was in and out of jail as the fights grew to involve dishes, knives and bricks. Shooting and injuring her then-husband landed her in prison for three years.
That’s when she was finally diagnosed with schizophrenia. Her cell mate told officers she was talking to people who weren’t there.
After Thirdkill was released, she struggled to stay on her medications, was suicidal, had a child taken into state custody and had several hospital stays.
[For more of this story, written by Michele Munz, go to http://www.stltoday.com/lifest...f4-0887a1d789a1.html]
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