San Francisco Chronicle - Monday, December 23, 2002
Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer

In the past year, he's also fought his way back to health after being hospitalized eight times in three months for a variety of ailments, including pneumonia, blood clots and kidney failure.

"Everything happened all at once," said Lien, who walks with a limp because of a lingering clot in his left leg. "But I've survived all that."

And in good spirits. Despite being disabled by his health problems and subsisting on just $760 in Social Security payments a month, he's not complaining.

Lien is on an HIV protocol and takes protease inhibitors, which he said have kept the virus at bay and made a big difference in his life.

"I don't get depressed," said Lien, a gay man of 67. "I don't allow myself to get down. My attitude has saved me many times."

While many Bay Area residents struggle to get by on far more than Lien's income, he insists he's doing all right.

"I'm making ends meet," he said. "I'm living fine. I can pay all my bills." But after dealing with the bills, there's little left over. Lien pays an affordable $201 a month in rent at Mendelsohn House, a nonprofit housing development for seniors across Folsom Street from Moscone Center.

Toiletries and food not covered by food stamps eat up another $400, while utilities and transportation use up the rest.

"Because there's not much money, he needs some help so he can buy some of the things he needs," said Ellen Trinh, a Mendelsohn House social worker.

Lien would like a digital hearing aid that would allow him to pick out voices from background noise, he said, unlike the standard hearing aid he received a couple of years ago from the California Hearing Society.

Also on his wish list: a couch to replace the worn love seat he bought used five years ago for $20. "I wouldn't mind a used one," he said.

Lien spends a lot of time on the love seat, often with Jack the cat, a mellow white-and-tan tabby, seated beside him.

"He's a good companion," Lien said.

With his budget so tight, Lien no longer goes out to see movies. He takes daily walks, exploring his South of Market neighborhood, but his main source of entertainment is his television set.

He frequents CNN but also likes to watch movies and sports -- especially the 49ers and Giants.

Lien considers himself a San Franciscan, though he was born and raised in North Dakota. After high school and a couple of years of college, he joined the Marines, and spent eight years with aviation ground crews in North Carolina, Florida, Hawaii and Japan.

When he left the Marines, Lien stayed in Hawaii for four years and then hitchhiked around the world. His travels took him to Australia, New Zealand, India, the Suez Canal, Italy, England and Scandinavia.

His journey, but not the adventure, ended when he was deported from Copenhagen for not having enough money.

Authorities put him aboard a ship. He pitched in and worked during the voyage, and arrived in New Orleans with $700. Then he returned home to North Dakota.

"But I couldn't stay there after all that I'd seen," Lien said. So he headed to San Francisco, arriving in 1965. He worked on the docks as a customs broker, boarding foreign vessels and doing paperwork. He fondly recalled the spice ships.

"The smells of the spices," he said, "aaahhhh, so intoxicating."

But not as intoxicating as the Haight Ashbury in the 1960s. Lien moved to the Haight and fell into the scene. He did small jobs building terrariums and making beadwork.

"I did everything that hippies do," he said. "I was a bohemian in San Francisco."

Curiosity took him to Los Angeles for a couple of years in the mid-1970s, where Lien "did L.A.," earning his beautician's license and doing hair in Beverly Hills.

"I worked at a real chichi shop," he said. "They all rolled up in Rolls and Mercedes. Very difficult women."

But San Francisco, said Lien, was home, so he returned -- and never left. He lived in the avenues, on Nob Hill, near the Marina and in the Castro, where he'd sit on the porch of his Victorian apartment building watching neighbors go by.

"I knew every dog in a two-block radius," he said.

But that ended late one night when someone firebombed his apartment. He escaped by jumping from the flaming third-floor unit to a second-floor balcony.

Lien says he lost almost everything. For a couple of months he slept at friends' homes until he was accepted at Mendelsohn House five years ago.

His one-bedroom apartment is tiny but comfortable, and is sparsely furnished. But, again, Lien's not complaining.

"This is home," he said, "and it's big enough for me."

Donations to the Season of Sharing Fund help thousands of people throughout the year. Assistance is in the form of grants paid directly to the supplier of services, such as a landlord. Individuals cannot receive direct grants.

For more information visit www.seasonofsharing.org.

E-mail Michael Cabanatuan at mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com.
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