18.05.12

SALISBURY — Now that the mornings have turned crisp, Johnny Luckey can see his breath as he bends down to unchain his mo-ped.

He wears layers of clothing, topped off by a reflector vest for the 8-mile trip ahead of him in the darkness.

The mo-ped has been parked all night at the top of the ramp leading into the Rowan Helping Ministries shelter. Luckey has lived here for more than two years, trying to put a life together that once was in a hundred pieces.

He is up and moving at the shelter by 5 a.m. and on the ramp with his moped by 5:30, long before breakfast is served.

Luckey moves with resolve, in a routine that hasn’t let him down all summer and fall. He also carries an approachability and ease making it hard to believe people used to call him “Nitro,” the explosive man he became when drinking.

Even though he’s headed into a pitch-black morning, brightened only by streetlights and the head lamps of an occasional passing car, Luckey pulls sunglasses to his face.

Source: Salisbury Post