VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

Demetrios is a survivor

By Hannah Herner

Contributor vendor Demetrios says he knows a lot of customers by face, and wishes he knew more by name.

His own name is a family one — it’s flipped from first to middle and back for generations. He’ll talk about anything, though he doesn’t know much about fishing or outdoors-y activities.

“I'm not a big country boy. I'm from Chicago,” he chuckles.

Sports are a safe bet. He loves the Cubs, the Bears and the Blackhawks. He was an athlete himself, “spoiled” by his family, in his own words. His father didn’t want him to work while he was in grade school, so he focused on sports. He says he had a great childhood, and loved his high school years. Demetrios was especially successful with wrestling — he went undefeated —but also participated in football, basketball and baseball. He has fond memories of working at a full-service gas station in the summers to save money for college.

Demetrios excelled at architectural drawings, and went to college for it, though his skills became obsolete when computers were introduced. For 20 years, he was in a union, working in food service. He drove truck, worked in schools and at grocery stores.

Demetrios has lost count of how long he’s been in Nashville, but he guesses around 11 years. A job opportunity that went awry and left him broke brought him here. When he first got here, he felt comfortable, because it was easy to find others like him, who lived on the streets.

“I had everything. Corvettes, Cadillacs, an in-ground pool, I gave it all away. I'm so much happier. No paying property taxes, the house, cars, insurance, car payment, child support, water, electricity. Money don't buy happiness, at all. All my friends ended up robbing me in the end. I took care of everybody, paid for everything,” he says.

Demetrios has experienced the loss of many family and friends. Many of his family members died in a boating accident, and his own son and namesake died by suicide.

“He looked just like me. The spitting image, carbon copy. He talked like me, laughed like me, looked like me. I wanted him to come down here. I wish he would have,” he says.

He says he feels like a survivor, having outlived so many of his loved ones. He’s quick to laugh, and says he has to so he doesn’t cry. These losses have confirmed to him that he must be here for a reason, he says.

“I've had friends dying every other week out here. My buddy Gator just died a couple weeks ago. All the friends out here. All my friends are limited back home. I've outlived everybody,” he says. “All of my family is in heaven waiting for me. They’re all looking down on me. I want to make them proud.”

He’s proud that he’s been sober for four years. For the last five years he’s worked on getting benefits for his disability, having lost an eye and dealing with blindness in the other, on top of health conditions like diabetes and neuropathy.

“I’m 56 years old. I’m not a young kid, not a spring chicken. I’ve been around the block,” he says.

The Contributor housing navigation team is working on getting him food stamps, and on housing wait lists. Through it all, Demetrios puts his trust in God. He sees the pandemic and lacking natural resources as the potential culmination of the book of Revelation.

“Everything in that book is real. The Bible is real. Every word in it is real,” he says. “So if you don't think so you're going to have a rude awakening. I’m a soldier of God until the day I die.”