A new lease on life for homeless veteran

TORRINGTON — Pete Rourke, 61, credits the wrap-around support he received while staying at the FISH NWCT shelter since Sept. 20, with helping to turn his life around. The Air Force veteran recently signed a lease for a studio apartment that will mark his return to his hometown of Farmington.

The road to sobriety and a roof over his head has been paved with decades of hardship.

“I was self-medicating with alcohol,” said Rourke during a mid-December interview.

Diagnosed with severe depression in 2002, he had been in and out of shelters and no longer drives since racking up DUIs and road rage incidents. Several times he attempted suicide, the first time by cutting his jugular with a utility knife.

“I wouldn’t be here now if not for my dad, who came home from work and found a pool of blood in the bathroom,” said the soft-spoken Rourke, sporting sweats and a green Dave Matthews Band knit cap.

On another occasion he was violently attacked and punched in the throat while sleeping outdoors on the New Haven green in between shelters. “I had my backpack with all my paperwork” and feared being robbed, he said.

But Rourke’s life took a turn for the better, he recalled, upon arrival at the Torrington shelter, away from the big cities like Hartford and New Haven. “I had to make the decision” to receive needed help, “and I’m now on meds.”

His first night at FISH, he said, was the happiest he’d been in years.

“I actually heard crickets. I was so thankful for that. And I did my laundry when I came in. I felt like I was back at my family home.” And he made friends for a lifetime, said Rourke, including those in the five-bed dorm for veterans.

With a fresh, new start before him, he is anxiously awaiting the move into his apartment, located a short distance from his mother’s home: “It’s a roof over my head.”

While waiting approval for disability benefits, Rourke said he may do odd jobs, including snow removal at his mother’s home, to earn money for living expenses.

“I hope it’s a bad winter,” he said with a smile.