Lawrence Homer

I write about my brother Larry Homer ("Larry Boy"), just as I did my brother John who I also found through the Hart Island Project.  Larry was the second oldest of 7 siblings.  I am the youngest.  Along with my other 3 oldest siblings, he was born to a different father than I.  We grew up together as very young siblings, but Larry left home before I turned 7.  My sister Colleen left shortly before him and my brother John followed soon after.  All of them grew up and died on the streets of NYC as IV drug users from AIDS-related illnesses in the height of the AIDS crisis.  As it turns out, Larry died on Christmas Day 1989.  I'm heart broken to think that he died alone and I struggle to recall how I spent that Christmas Day while he passed, not that it would change anything of course.  Unlike my brother John, who hung around the house a year or two longer, or my sister Colleen who I would briefly reconnect with later in life,  I barely got to know my brother Larry.  I remember he was really smart.  So much so that I always thought he would find success and we would some day reconnect.  Similar to what I wrote of my brother John, I have old pictures and faded memories that tell the story of a happy family growing up.  I wish it remained that way.  I wish we could have grown old together.  I like to think that, under different circumstances, my life would have been profoundly and positively influenced by my older siblings.  Of course, I'll never know but I'm grateful to the Hart Island Project that I found Larry.  I have that bit of closure.  I miss and love my brother Larry very much.  - Rob Faro