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Homeless at 80, Eugene Postorono Moves Inside

After Nearly 30 Years on the Streets, Deteriorating Health Brings Elderly Man to Casa Esperanza

Tuesday, August 3, 2010
By Isabelle T. Walker

One day in June, as 80-year-old Eugene Postorono walked up State Street, something happened that landed him in Cottage Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. He thinks he collapsed. At least that’s what he was told. But he doesn’t remember anything in the moments leading up to the event. He just knows that one minute life was as normal as it can be for a homeless senior citizen, and the next, he was waking up in a hospital feeling disoriented and confused.

Doctors released him after about a week. They put him in a pre-paid taxi and sent him to Casa Esperanza. That’s where he’s been ever since, recuperating in one of the shelter’s 30 medical beds.

Postorono is using a walker now, something he never did before, and his hair is cut short. He no longer has his glasses, or his watch or wallet. All three items disappeared in the course of his ordeal. He suspects somebody took them, because he never saw them after waking up in the hospital. His wallet, tragically, had $157 in cash inside.

“I’ll never see it,” Postorono said with resignation. “Whoever found it, they’ll keep the money and probably throw the wallet away.” To read more, see homelessinsb.org.

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