Madonnas 55 year-old homeless brother: How did I end up here? Ask my family.
When I reported on Madonna’s homeless brother Anthony a few days ago, a few of you took me to task for suggesting that Madonna should do something to help him. Some of you have addicts in your family or do close work with the homeless, and have learned from painful experience that there’s nothing you can do to help someone who doesn’t want to quit drinking and drugging. I wrote in a comment that I respect that opinion and that it’s true that I haven’t experienced anything like that first hand. Having read another interview with Madonna’s brother, I really see your point.
Madonna’s brother Anthony Ciccone, 55, lives under a bridge in Michigan and spends his time drinking and finding money to continue drinking. It’s sad and it’s pointless, but after reading this interview I see that it’s something that only he can change, and that all the money in the world isn’t going to help the guy. Commenter Valleymiss repeated something she’s heard in the past about addiction that hit home for me. “When it comes to helping an addict, $20 is too much money and a million isn’t enough.” This comment by ahappyrobot really got me to see how severely addiction can ruin someone’s life, and the lengths people can go through to get drugs, screwing their entire family over in the process. So anyway here’s more from Madonna’s brother. Again, this is not the same brother who wrote a tell all about his sister, this is another guy. Anthony does blame his family somewhat, but it’s clear that he’s the one who screwed his life up.
He said: “How did I end up here? Ask my family.”
His nicotine-stained hands shook as he lit a cigarette before continuing: “I haven’t had anything to do with Madonna in years. I doubt if she cares about my predicament.
“The only reason people seem to care about me is who my sister is. I know I could tell stories about her but I won’t. She wants nothing to do with me. She has her life.”
Surrounded by empty beer cans and soggy old blankets beside the river in Traverse City, Anthony looked like a weather-beaten pensioner with his straggly white beard and ruddy face. He added: “Being homeless is hard but I’ve got nowhere else to go. I used to live in Manhattan, in the East Village.
“Then I went to Hollywood to work as a carpenter in the movies. Then I came back here to Michigan to work for our father’s vineyard — and it all went wrong.
“I’m the eldest and I’m what I call the red-headed stepchild — that’s an American expression for an unwanted kid. The black sheep of the family, if you like.
“A year or so ago my father ordered me out. I had nowhere else to go. I have an ex-partner and a son out in the Midwest who I haven’t seen in years. And although I am the eldest of eight children, my siblings don’t want to know…
“I am not going to ask Madonna for anything. Why would I? We had little to do with each other, even in the 1980s when I was in New York and she moved there to find fame and fortune.”
Madonna has spoken in the past about the pain of losing her mother — also called Madonna — to breast cancer in 1963 and how she and her siblings, including Anthony, had struggled to cope.
Their father, Silvio, later married the family’s housekeeper, Joan Gustafson, and went on to have two more children, Jennifer and Mario.
Silvio is now in charge of the family’s vineyard on Michigan’s picturesque Leelanau peninsula, from which Anthony was fired last year.
He added: “This area of Michigan is beautiful. It’s the cherry capital of America.
“The homeless have gravitated to it because local churches provide food and you can sleep in the lobby of the local jail when it’s cold.
“The police directed me to this river bridge. It’s out of the way — the tourists can’t see us hidden down here. But it is rough.
“I’ve seen people get thrown in the river. The native Americans get drunk and start fights.
“I fell in the river once. I slipped on ice and cracked my head open. I was rescued by a cop.
“Last winter I got frostbite on my toes. The pain is excruciating but luckily I got treatment. I have a friend who lost all ten toes to frostbite. Now he gets about with a cane — he can just about walk. And he’s still homeless. I saw him at the church for breakfast this morning.
“People have died out here of hypothermia. Of course, given the chance I wouldn’t be out here but I don’t really have a choice.
“In Manhattan I had a rent-controlled apartment in Alphabet City. It was a s***hole but it only cost $300 (£190) a month.
“I was a carpenter and I wanted to work on the movies, so I moved to Hollywood. I did videos, commercials, the odd TV and film show. But I never worked with Madonna on anything. She didn’t ask me.
“People said I should be in front of the cameras but I never did it. Should have done really…
Anthony’s average day begins when the homeless are ordered out of Traverse City jail at 7am. He usually wanders the streets until 8.30am, when the Methodist church serves breakfast to the hungry.
He chats to pals, pops out constantly to smoke roll-up cigarettes and to cadge whatever money he can to buy strong beer.
By 11am he descends the broken wooden steps to the river bank and makes his way to the pile of old clothes and blankets left by other homeless people.
Waving his arms at the filthy bundle of rags and quilts he said: “In the summer months we all sleep here. It’s not great but I don’t have any choice. The police are OK but the powers in this town want us gone. They think we put off the tourists.
“If it wasn’t for the tourism, this place would be Bumf***, Iowa, and nobody would care.”
Asked if he would like a warming cup of coffee, Anthony said: “No, I want another beer.” It was still not even lunchtime…
Locals branded him a “druggie” but his homeless pal insisted he had kicked the habit and now relies on booze to get through the day.
Jerilyn DeBoer,who runs Cousin Jenny’s Cornish Pasty, a British-themed café yards from the bridge where Anthony hangs out, said: “The family have tried but there’s nothing more they can do.”
[From The Sun]
So I get it, I guess. Your stories really changed my position on this. So did a memoir I read a few years ago called The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, a former MSNBC columnist. Walls’ family lived a meager existence and her parents ended up homeless. She described in detail how they gradually pissed away every opportunity they had. She later learned that her mother owned land worth over a million dollars. I don’t think all homeless people put themselves there, that there’s no hope for them or that they deserve it. It’s complicated. Over the summer I heard a segment on NPR about “wet shelters,” which are controversial as they house homeless people while allowing them to drink. The arguments for wet shelters are that at least the homeless have a roof over their head, and that the cost to the taxpayer is lower in the long run. The arguments against them include the fact that they enable addiction. It’s not a simple issue and this story about Madonna’s brother reminds us that it’s not going to be solved anytime soon. I still can’t stand Madonna though.
Photo credit: PRPhotos
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