Homeless father working hard to get his boys back after losing his fiancee, fighting COVID-19

A father experiencing homelessness who has really been through the wringer worries his children will end up in foster care for good. His fiancee died last year. Then, he tested positive for COVID-19 and it’s keeping him home from work.

Mickel Lawson doesn’t complain. Somehow he’s upbeat when his life is really hard. For starters, he lives in a little, white car.

His story doesn’t start here, though. He says it started with a woman named Kara 11 years ago.

“We started dating, going on dates, jazz like that. Wine, cheese…” he said, laughing.

Kara died in September 2019, leaving behind the couple’s three young boys. Lawson couldn’t support them alone, as he didn’t have the money. So his boys live with host families now.

“Everything got taken in one whack. Everything got taken underneath me,” he said.

Lawson wants to work, but he’s still suffering from symptoms after a hard-fought battle with the coronavirus. He’s just too weak to get back on the job.

“My boys keep me pushing. I wake up every day thinking about them. That’s what keeps me going,” he said.

Pushing, planning and praying about the day he can live with his boys again.

“Oh man, I’m gonna cry,” Lawson said. “It would mean a lot. I’d get my boys back. It would be tremendous.”

In the meantime, he holds on to what he has — this little white car…Kara’s car.

“Too many memories. I would never trade it, nope,” he said, and his boys’ Legos in Kara’s trunk.

“Whoever is going through the same issues, there is God out there. Keep pushing. I’m a walking testimony,” Lawson said, to holding onto hope.

He is doing everything he can. He found “Better Together,” a program that works with parents to keep their children out of foster care. Lawson’s mentor says he is a hard worker who they believe will get back with his boys.