Out of the woods

What remained of J.D. Glass’ homeless camp was carted off in big black trash bags out of the woods near the Department of Motor Vehicles building on Caton Hill Road Saturday.

And there were lots and lots of bags.

“The things that matter the most to me are not here,” Glass said, as he and volunteers associated with the Hilda Barg Homeless Prevention Center cleaned up and threw away the remnants of his life for six years. “This is my old life.”

There were old soda bottles, plastic bags, clothes, batteries for his portable television and radio, old newspapers, fast food wrappers and mostly just trash.

There were also empty Thunderbird wine bottles, strewn everywhere – hundreds of them. Those were recycled.

Glass, 54, who has been down and out, through hell and back, at death’s door and so many other clichés, is now at yet another one: clean and sober.

And no longer homeless.

He had lived homeless in various locations in Prince William County and elsewhere for about 20 years and was gradually drinking himself to death.

He and his dog Bob had become fixtures in the Dale City area for almost 10 years. The pair often passed the time on a bench outside the Target store along  Prince William Parkway.

Gayle Sanders, director of the Hilda Barg Homeless Prevention Center, remembers seeing Glass and Bob there often and trying to help.

“A lot of times, he wouldn’t even talk to me,” she said. “I wouldn’t give him money because I knew where that would go but I would buy dog food.”

Bob had his own tent in the woods, right next to Glass’s. Those two were the best of friends.

Glass remains a charmer. He wasn’t a working homeless man. He was a panhandler who was easily able to coax the five bucks he needed to buy his Thunderbird.

That was until last summer when Glass’ alcoholic ways started catching up on him.

“I had made my peace with God, my family and in every way. I expected to die right here,” Glass said pointing to what had been his tent, his home.

His liver had started to fail. He ended up in the hospital, then a nursing home and with hospice care by the fall of last year.

Since he believed he was going to die, he allowed a local veterinary clinic to find an adoptive home for Bob.

But Glass didn’t die. He got better.

The nursing home “kicked him out for being too healthy,” as Glass describes it. He then found a new and temporary home at the homeless prevention center where Sanders and her army of compassionate volunteers helped Glass remain off the bottle and find a new life.

He now rents a basement room in a house and spends much of his time volunteering at the center.

“They were there for me. These are my friends,” Glass said pointing to the 20 some people who were hauling all the trash out of the woods. “They don’t have to be here.”

Before Saturday, Glass had only been back to his camp three times. The first time he went alone.

“It was a chance to look at where I’d been and where I was,” he said. “I looked around and realized that I was lucky to have survived it. A lot of people don’t.”

He said his path in life has been worth it to him because of the people it had eventually led him to.

“God smiled at me,” he said.

Sanders has worked with countless homeless people over the years and she said it is not often that she has run across someone like Glass, who has been through so much and has changed so much.

“Doing this work can be difficult but every once in a while there is that one person and it means everything,” Sanders said. “That keeps you doing what you do every day. You never know who that ‘one’ will be. J.D. is one and I never thought that would happen.”

Staff writer Aileen Streng can be reached at 703-530-3907.