Portland Vietnam veteran reunites with family after three decades

A Portland veteran reunites with family after three decades
Published: Saturday, September 03, 2011
By Kelly House, The Oregonian
CORNING, N.Y. -- At his lowest point, filthy and infirm with a catheter duct-taped to his leg, Ed Saxbury yearned to see his family.

It was a daily wish, but shame and fear of rejection kept him from calling home for 28 years.

Ed, a short, stocky, bespectacled man with a sallow complexion and a pronounced scar on his forehead, had been a small-time crook and, in his own words, "a deadbeat dad." He lived under the Morrison Bridge and near the South Waterfront marina for a decade, fueling his alcoholism by raiding trash bins outside Portland breweries.

"I wanted to contact home so bad, I just ..." Ed's voice trails off as painful memories emerge. He shudders. Tears fill his eyes as he removes his glasses, nervously tapping them against a footstool in his Southeast Portland home. "I was too embarrassed. What am I going to say?"
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