Burnell Cotton Passed Away In September

Some time after these videos were shot, a church took Cotton in, and gave him a place off the streets to live. Today, while reading the homeless newspaper put out by The Campus For Human Development, during Project Homeless Connect I learned that he passed away back in September of this year. Cotton was one of my favorite people, homeless, or otherwise. I first encountered him at a meeting of "The Living Room" a self help group for the homeless. For months he came to the meetings but never said anything. And he was always so still that many, including myself, thought that he was falling asleep in his chair. He always came early, and was seated in the room before others showed up.

But, eventually he started opening up and began participating, ever so slowly, with the conversations around him. Eventually he started taking the initiative and participating openly - he even joined the ranks of the Homeless Power Project, when that started up. Often a naysayer, as many homeless are, he spoke his mind, or he didn't speak. He was always honest about his ideas, even if they were, at times, a bit off center.

As long as I'd known him, he has been this heavy. He had several health issues, which were exacerbated when ran afoul of the rescue missions rule of, "No hats allowed to be worn during Chapel." You see, at the rescue mission, having mental health issues is no excuse for not obeying their many rules. And Cotton wearing his hat during Chapel at the mission was not an act of disobedience - actually I don't know what his crazy reasoning was for it - but I'm sure to Cotton wearing his cap was the right thing to do. Yet, because he was given grief for it, he left the mission determined to never return.

From that point on, Cotton lived on the streets, sitting on bus and park benches, ruining his already fragile circulation system. In the series of videos I shot of him, you see a metro health department nurse trying to treat one of his legs that had swollen so much that the skin began to tear and become infected. Again, shortly after this development, a church group reached out to him, and gave him the care and shelter he needed. He did not die homeless, and I'm very grateful for that.

There are few people I could honestly say I'll miss, and Cotton is one of them.