Geoff’s Story
Geoff is 51 years old. He grew up in a rural Nebraska community and was a quiet boy who was good with machinery, really good in math, but not very good in school subjects requiring a lot of reading. With five brothers and sisters, he was overlooked a bit. He sort of drifted away from school starting at about sixth grade. He vaguely remembers the teachers and principal were unhappy about this and maybe spoke to his parents a couple times. It did not matter. He hardly went to classes anyway and failed a couple grades before getting old enough that he could quit going completely. He had been happy to stop, because he found reading-based subjects very difficult and it did not seem to relate to real stuff. Geoff’s parents had not minded because he moped when he had to go to school. His down moods could get bad enough to be noticed, and it worried his mom and dad. Everyone needed to pitch in and it was better for Geoff to be up and around so that he could help with things.
When Geoff was a young man, he liked spending time all over the county where everyone recognized him as a fix-it man and appreciated his ability to keep farm equipment, cars, and trucks running well. He could put up a pole barn faster and sturdier than most guys. He just generally helped anyone with anything they needed. He did a good job at it. He was not a planner or an organized record-keeper though. He got, and lost, a job at the local hardware store. Although Geoff was dependable and good natured, he was a little too quiet to be an effective salesman; more importantly, he could not keep track of inventory or handle receiving deliveries quickly and correctly. There was too much paperwork. After that, he went back to odd jobs – some of them paid pretty well because of his self-taught skills.
At 24, Geoff moved to a city nearby where he found a job as a mechanic at a truck stop. He met and moved into an apartment with Aileen, who was a waitress there. Aileen got bored with Geoff, left him, and went away with one of the independent truck drivers.
When Aileen left, Geoff sank into a depression. Without her income to help pay for the apartment, he had to move to a cheap rooming house. Soon afterward, he was injured when he was changing a tire for a friend’s tow truck. The jack broke, catching his right arm and hand under the truck wheel crushing his forearm and nearly cutting off his hand. Since the accident was not on the job, Geoff was not covered by worker’s compensation. To make matters worse, the injury did not heal properly, leaving him with a nearly useless hand for mechanical jobs. He had a lot of medical bills he could not pay, lost the room he was renting, and lost out on public benefits he might have received because he was too depressed to find out about them or apply for them. Geoff is ashamed of it now. He became addicted to the pain killers prescribed after his injury. He lived on the streets for a number of years picking up odd jobs for a dollar here or there and drifting from one soup kitchen to another. When he could pay for pain killers he did. A number of times, though, Geoff panhandled near the bus stops downtown for enough change to buy coffee, oxy (Links to an external site.) and sometimes enough cheap wine to help him sleep through rainy or cold nights.
Recently, a social worker at one of the shelters connected with Geoff and put him into a program that provides depression counseling, drug counseling, and a place in a residential facility. As his general and mental health have improved, Geoff has reconnected with his parents and a sister and her husband. His brothers have all left the county for jobs elsewhere, but Geoff’s parents want him to return home, care for them in their old age, then inherit and run the farm. They know, as he does, that farming is not the same as it used to be. Geoff will have to be able to plan a budget, keep financial records, apply for government programs, make reports to the county using a computer-based system, and keep up with important information from many sources.
As part of the year-long residential program, he has to stay off drugs and alcohol. Plus, he has to take General Educational Development (GED) test preparation courses, take the GED, and apply for jobs. Geoff sees the GED as key to his plan for a meaningful future. He hopes that at 51 he will have more patience for studying now than he did in school. He certainly has a focused goal, but he is also concerned he might not succeed. Geoff was tested at 6th grade reading and at 10th grade math. He thought of himself as a slow reader for so long. He knows he is not dumb, but it takes him time to understand things that he reads.
When he interacts with anyone, he feels that they are waiting impatiently for him to understand, to get what they are saying, and to respond. He has also missed out completely on the computer age, and he is going to have to learn how to use a computer from the beginning. He is pretty sure using a computer is nothing like fixing a tractor or truck. Geoff feels you have to be quick to use computers.
The fact that he has spent many years in depression is also a challenge for him. He does not focus well for long periods. He expects the worst from himself. In spite of this, Geoff is committed to giving the GED test preparation program his best try. The opportunity to go home, hold his head up high, help his parents and be a part of the community is strong motivation for him.