Up from homelessness

Sleeping bag. ©iStockphoto/stuartrtaylor

Sleeping bag. ©iStockphoto/stuartrtaylor

As we saw from the homelessness stories in one sentence on cardboard signs, homelessness can happen to men and women. Sometimes it happens to those who have yet to hit adulthood. Lifetime aired one such two-hour story in 2003, Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story

Murray, whose parents are separately living the horror of AIDS from drug-addiction, is shocked into beginning to work her way out of her nightmare when her mother dies. She obtains admission to an alternative high school which she completes in two years instead of four. In a twist of favor, possibly the first of her life, Liz is awarded a scholarship to Harvard by the New York Times for an essay she writes about living homeless.

Murray graduated from Harvard in 2009. She wrote about her experience in Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard.

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