Here's a story from my local paper (hey betson this one pulls on the heart)

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/articles/2007/09/19/lessons_in_humanity/


Here are comments:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/09/19/hospitals_hel...

I thought this comment from Truth was interesting:
"Every person who agreed to be interviewed had a story similar to Mr. Conway's. Each had suffered an emotionally traumatic time, usually centering on the death of family, which had plunged the individual, formerly capable and up-standing, into an abyss of sorrow and mourning which seemed to allow only for a life lived in the odd monastery of the streets. And this was part of what struck me: that there was a spiritual component to the lives of these folks. Each, often in very subtle ways, seemed to be engaged in a practice of grieving and contrition and suffering which necessitated poverty, simplicity, danger, atonement, denial of comfort, etc. Often these were not schizophrenics off their meds, but people who were once capable and strong who had been brought to their knees."