Diana, 43, has a nest for hair and a gaping smile. She suffers from the darkness of a mental illness that blinds her from knowing she doesn’t have to sleep on the stairs. And her choice to do so reflects the challenges in helping the homeless, as Diana refuses to go to a shelter, and no one, not even police, can force her to seek help. But the result is a relationship between Diana and her protectors, a type not taught in police academies.
What initially grabbed me about this story was not the above nutgraf. It was the lede:
She arrives by 8 most nights, shuffling past City Hall plaza, her backpack in tow with her orange and black blankets, a cardboard mat, a change of socks, and a pair of fleece-lined slippers, all she needs even on the coldest rainy nights.
So, I guess it did its job and made the reader want to read further. It made me want to know more about this person and her story.
However, once I made it to the nutgraf - all the way down at the bottom of the first page - I found it equally as brilliant.
Friday, July 3, 2009
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