Seeing a homeless person on the street makes most of us feel compassion, or even guilt. We feel that it isn't right that anyone should have to live like this in a wealthy country such as the United States. Something needs to be done, we think. Someone should take action, we think.

This is the true story of a person who not only saw this problem, but spent her life caring for these forgotten people in Washington D.C. Carol D. Marsh founded Miriam's House, a place where AIDS sufferers, including those with additional problems such as physical or emotional impairments would find a place to take them in and care for them.
In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, this disease was usually a death sentence, and an excruciating way to die. Miriam's House functioned as a Hospice center for these women. Later, as drugs were developed that made the disease more manageable, more women survived and Miriam's House helped launch some of them into a second chance at life. Others were lost when they reentered their old life of addiction and life on the streets.
In this memoir, Carol D. Marsh tells the story of how she came to found Miriam's House, a place where women suffering from AIDS and related problems would find a caring home. She lived there with her husband for fourteen years, from 1996 to 2009 and found herself gradually transformed by the relationships she developed with these people whose lives differed so greatly from hers. Her upbringing as a middle class, white suburban girl was a world away from the world that these women came from. Most of them were African American and faced the additional problems of addiction, physical impairments or mental illness. Most of them had been living on the street.
As she discovers how limited her understanding of these women is, Carol D. Marsh is forced to see aspects of herself that her privileged life had blinded her to. These tough women who had been stripped down to the essentials challenged her to see herself and others in a different way.
This is not the story of a martyr, but of an ordinary woman who found fulfillment and happiness serving people who desperately needed someone to care for them. It is the story of these women and how they helped each other struggle with their demons, creating the only safe home many of them had ever known.
Carol D. Marsh invites readers to enter a realm they probably can't even imagine and meet people unlike any they have known. She demonstrates how powerful the vision of one person can be. Through determination and hard work, she overcame multiple obstacles, and found personal fulfillment caring for these forgotten ones.

This is a deeply powerful memoir that inspired me toward activism. No one should have the life story that the woman described in these pages have experienced. Marsh does an amazing job of giving a voice to these women whose stories exemplify much of what is wrong with America today. Our current leaders would be well served to read this book and I plan to send it to my representatives.

I really wanted to like this book but the author came across as a huge complainer rather than a do-gooder. I know that was not the intent of the book, but the complaining became overwhelming after a while. I don't feel like I should put a review out for this book, as her intentions and motives were wonderful, the writing just gave a different vibe.