Elee decided to leave, even though she had nowhere to go and no means to support herself. Despite eight years in the U.S., her struggle with English persisted, and that day her departure was unmistakably clear.
I had invited Johnetta over, hoping she might help us untangle our unraveling relationship—even though she wasn’…
Marriage came when I was still clawing my way through the wreckage.
I wasn’t looking for it. I wasn’t ready for it.
But when it came—when she came—I didn’t turn away.
After years of shame, after a justice system that had labeled me something I never was, I had almost no sense of worth left. I was no longer sure I even deserved love. And…
When I speak of waking up after a suicide attempt, I am referring to the sense of having been detached from truly living life. I would get married to Elnaz Rezaei Ghalechi in 2010 and it is not hard to understand that aspects of this marriage were problematic.
I didn’t approach this as a true chance at happiness but more of a desperate desire for connection… to share…
Trips to Wilmington used to be a sanctuary for me to connect and find acceptance, but now, they no longer comfort me. I've moved to Carrboro, where I feel like a pariah, excluded from society, grappling with the notion that I might deserve it.
In Carrboro, I tried to build a normal life, seeking meaning, but doubt…
The Web Development business wasn’t paying much but I was working quite often at Measurement Inc. We were hired as readers. All that was required was at least a 4 year degree. It seemed like this was attracting a large number of people. I doubt that many of them were homeless or had been homeless. Some were at retirment age. It seemed like the place to work for anyone who had nowhere else to go. No clear career…
I might have had a home. I might have had a hefty lump sum of cash, but the thought of connecting with anyone felt like an impossible dream. The concept of being loved was beyond my grasp. How could I connect with anyone after everything that had torn me apart?
My self-worth lay in ruins—obliterated by injustice, crushed under the…
It was the middle of 2006.
I was 40 years old, and the last two years had been a brutal fight for survival—homeless, betrayed, falsely accused, and now forever marked as a criminal. Although my status as a homeless person was on the verge of changing, everything else remained a bleak constant.
…
I wish I could tell you this story had a resolution, that justice was served, or that time healed what had been broken.
But this story doesn’t end that way.
For thirteen years, I existed in a world without color, a purgatory where the days are now a blur and one day was like any other, lifeless and heavy. I wasn’t living—I was…
A Memoir About the Necessity of Connection
Tell Me I’m Not Invisible is a memoir for anyone who’s ever felt unseen, unloved, or alone.
Bruce Whealton grew up in silence. His childhood was defined by emotional deprivation, physical abuse, and a family that made him feel like a ghost—unseen, unwanted, unworthy. For years, he believed what that world taught him: that he wasn’t enough.
That he wasn’t loveable.
And then something miraculous happened.
He found love.
First in Celta. Then in Lynn. Through their unwavering affection, Bruce began to transform. He shed the…
A Dialog with ChatGPT and a second AI model (DeepSeek) to consider the implications of empathy and compassion. ChatGPT is included first as it is most critical of those coworkers…