I was leading a street photography workshop when Mandrell, one of the heroin addicts that I’ve photographed, spotted me on the corner of State and Madison. “Hey Chuck, how are you? I haven’t seen you in a while” Mandrell said as she introduced me to her boyfriend. “Have you seen Shaggy lately?” I asked. “Yeah, I saw him yesterday. He’s really fucked up, his leg is swollen huge with infection, and he might have to have his foot amputated” she replied.
Later that day, as I was about to get on the train to head back home, that little voice in the back of my head was beckoning me to go and see if Shaggy might be in Talkers’ Park.
Sure enough, when I walked back to the park, Shaggy was there eating hot dogs that the Make A Wish Foundation had just served to all the people needing food. His leg was wrapped, but I could still tell it was quite swollen.
We walked back into an alley where we could sit and talk undisturbed. Shaggy told me that he needed to go into the hospital for the next two weeks for treatment, or he would have to have his leg removed. He had a small abscess on his foot, but he stepped in a puddle that had dog shit floating in it. Now he has a blood infection.
When I first started photographing Shaggy some 18 months ago, he was a large man who was feared by many people down on Lower Wacker, due to his formidable strength. Today, Shaggy resembles a crumpled piece of aluminum foil, and has dwindled down to little more than a walking skeleton.
I’m going with Shaggy to the hospital tomorrow, and I agreed to come and visit him three times a week while he’s in the hospital. I hope he stays in. Heroin addicts have a tendency to leave the hospital in order to quell the demon.
I hope Shaggy actually shows up tomorrow. I don’t think he has much longer to live.
To see a person waste away
Dripping pounds of flesh like wax
Until all that’s left is a burned up wick
And hard black ash
Blood poisoned by the wind and rain
Paying penance for the simple pleasures
Earthly treasures are only pain
And nothing lasts forever -Nathan Bowles