Anthony Jamieson: A story of survival
A broken bone saved Anthony’s life.
In 2023, he broke his ankle so badly it took 11 screws to fix. Anthony had a long stay at a respite center, and it was there that he learned he had stage 3 prostate cancer.
“I sat with the doctor, and he said to me that I had cancer,” Anthony says. “I looked at him, and it was such a big word, and I was all by myself.”
Anthony was born the youngest of six in Montgomery, Alabama, where, just a few years earlier, Rosa Parks sparked the bus boycott by refusing to give up her seat. His parents marched from Selma with Martin Luther King Jr. When he was about five, Anthony’s grandmother told his mother to get the family out of Alabama because it was not safe for the kids.
The family moved to Boston just before Dr. King was killed. Anthony remembers Blue Hill Avenue on fire in the aftermath of the assassination. But he says he did not really experience racism until high school, when he was bused from Roxbury to school in South Boston. Nothing could have prepared Anthony for the violent hostility he endured on that school bus. People threw rocks at him and his Black classmates. The attacks continued but did not stop Anthony from graduating.
He started working as a construction laborer, mostly doing demolition. He longingly watched the carpenters at work. When the opportunity came up to learn the trade, Anthony jumped at it. He loves being a carpenter. He loves creating.
Anthony joined the carpenters union and was proud to be part of something bigger than himself — a brotherhood. But he could not count on consistently getting work. He would work six months here, four months there, and make good money. Then a project would end, and Anthony would be out of work until the next job came up, unable to pay his bills.
“Anybody can end up homeless — just a stroke of bad luck, a layoff, company closing, anything,” he says. “I met a lot of very smart people who were homeless.”
Anthony slept in cars, in hallways, and in all kinds of weather. He lost a foot to frostbite from living on the street.
Anthony was living in a shelter when he broke his ankle. While rehabilitating it at the respite center, he went through 28 days of radiation to treat his cancer. That is when Anthony got the call that there was a home for him at 2Life. When he completed his recovery, Anthony moved straight into his apartment in the brand-new J.J. Carroll House at Brighton Campus.
He has been cancer-free for over a year. After living in a shelter, it felt strange to live alone in an apartment, so Anthony got a puppy to keep him company. His ankle healed, and he can walk again. He misses being able to work, but he is grateful.
“It seems like yesterday I was in South Boston getting rocks thrown at me, and now I am sitting here and 40 years have gone by,” Anthony says. “I survived cancer. I survived homelessness, the streets of Boston. I can hardly believe that I have ended up in this place where I am safe and comfortable.”
