That is a long story, but the gist of it is, I was in the mortgage industry and very successful at it. I owned a wonderful little home in the country in Tennessee. I went through a divorce in 1999 and never remarried. My daughter was only 18 months old when we divorced, and I just wanted to focus on being her dad. I was worried about the effects of divorce on her. So, I stayed single and tried to make that home a refuge. In 2007, the mortgage industry began to collapse and the company I worked for (at the time the largest privately funded lender in the country) closed its doors. I lost my career, and then my home. By this time my ex-wife had remarried, and her husband was very abusive (they have since divorced) and my daughter was always in his crosshairs. I couldn’t find work in Nashville at the time, and I couldn’t leave town for a job because I was her only line of defense. So, I slept in my car, showered at the county rec center, worked odd jobs, and remained in her world. By this time, I had found out about my biological father, and I knew what it was to grow up without a dad in my life…at least one that loved me. So, I stayed, and in doing so, had to live homeless for several years.
