THE AMAZING TRUE STORY OF MAXWELL

By John Grossi

Photos by Monique Kuhlman

His life story will make a Hollywood script one day. 

I’ll just give you the short version, for now.  

Maxwell, who never attended school until he was 17 years old, is now living at the Long Beach Rescue Mission's newly built "Timothy's House" for young men

Meet Maxwell. You’ve never met anyone like him. 

His story is a firm reminder that unimaginable hardships exist in our society, and unthinkable wrongs are occurring right under our nose.

Maxwell’s story is also a reminder of the incredible power of enduring hope, faith, and belief in Christ. And the incredible ability of humans to triumph beyond all odds.

Existing Outside Of The System, In Plain Sight

Maxwell and his brother (who is one year younger) never met their dad. When Maxwell was four, their mom was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Maxwell’s grandma took the boys away from where they had been living (living situation unknown) in San Bernardino and brought them to Long Beach. Here, they lived with their grandma and grandpa. They went to church. They saw friends, family, and neighbors.

But there was one problem. The kids were kept completely out of the system. 

“My Grandma was a conspiracy theorist. She was afraid if anyone knew about us, Social Services would take us away and we’d be put in foster care and abused,” says Maxwell.

The boys were never issued social security cards; never got their birth certificates; and never registered with any government-affiliated program or with any public or private organization at all. They never went to one day of school.

As Maxwell says, he and his brother didn’t realize anything was weird about their life. “Growing up was fun... that’s what any child sees. When you’re young everything is fun.”

Their mom would even live with them sometimes off and on. Maxwell says his grandpa was especially good to them.  “He was a veteran who had never had kids... so we were like his children.”

The Arkansas Years

Unhappily, when Maxwell was 8 or 9 years old, his grandparents separated. Grandma drove the boys to a rural town in Arkansas where she had grown up. There, the three of them lived in an uninhabited house with no electricity, that was infested with rats and surrounded by snakes. Their grandma got a job at a salon doing hair for family and friends.  Maxwell and his brother, both preteens, started a lawn mowing business and would mow lawns almost every morning to make money.

What else did you do when you weren’t mowing lawns to pass the time? I asked.

Maxwell said the closest place to get food was about two miles away, so every day they’d walk about two miles to get a sandwich and back. They had bikes that they’d ride down a big hill almost every afternoon or evening until they heard the cicadas chirp and they’d go back inside.

“There were over 500 rats in the house,” Maxwell stated multiple times. “Honestly, we would play with them to have fun, throw cups at them and things like that.”

At night, the house was unimaginably cold. With no electricity for heat, Maxwell and his brother would sleep in a bed together and gather every piece of clothing to use for warmth. “Hoodies, shirts, blankets, whatever we could find, we’d put a huge pile over ourselves every night.”

Eventually, their mom came to live with them in Arkansas too. The four of them shared the house for about a year, along with two stray dogs that followed the mom home. One of the dogs gave birth to pups, which led to a bloody scene in the middle of the living room that Maxwell will never forget.

“It taught us how to take care of animals and survive,” says Maxwell about Arkansas. “I think my life story and my brother’s life story is about surviving.”

The Car Years

In 2019, their mom moved to Ohio and Grandma decided to take the kids back to Long Beach, where they moved back in with Grandpa. “Life was good that year,” Maxwell remembers.

But in 2020, their grandpa contracted COVID and tuberculosis from which he passed away. The family lost their home. Then Grandma and the two boys, now teen-agers, lived out of a series of cars.

The 14-year-old Maxwell became aware that his life wasn’t going the way it should. He began thinking of his future and realized that he and his brother needed an education. The boys did have cellphones, so they began to use YouTube to teach themselves how to read. Every day they’d find a Pizza Hut or other chain restaurant in which they could sit, access Wi-Fi, sound out words and learn to put the sounds together into words they knew. They taught themselves some basic math too.

Every few months, the grandma seemed to have a different car for them to live in. Each time it was smaller. They went from a Lincoln Navigator to a Chevy Equinox. She crashed the Equinox so then they were sleeping on the concrete. Eventually, they were living in a small Saturn Ion. Meanwhile, of course, the boys were getting bigger. At 16 and 17 years old, they were 6’3” and 6’4” in stature. Picture those two strapping young men, plus Grandma and all their life’s belongings… squeezed into a compact Saturn Ion.

By this point, Maxwell had finally come to the realization that life with Grandma, the woman who had raised him and taken care of him his whole life, was not good for him and his brother. They needed an education if they wanted to ever have a home again. So, Maxwell convinced his brother to run away with him. They went to a friend’s house in Long Beach. The friend took them in and reported them to Social Services.

“The guy said he’d never ever heard of a case like ours,” said Maxwell. “There was no record of us anywhere. We lived completely out of the system.”

They learned for the first time that it was illegal for a kid not to be in school. They were enrolled in Poly HS. For the first two months, they weren’t expected to do anything… just learn the customs of school, how to raise their hand, how to navigate their schedule. Then in their first official semester in the Poly “PAAL” Academy of Achievers and Leaders, they both got straight A's.

“Everyone was shocked,” says Maxwell. “Me and my brother most of all.”

For the last year, Social Services have been working to implement their entry into the system. They are working on getting Maxwell and his brother social security cards and birth certificates. Through DNA testing, Maxwell was matched back to a “blood prick” hospital sample from the time of his birth, which is how they were able to trace their roots back to San Bernardino.

Maxwell At The Timothy House

You would never guess Maxwell’s story if you met him. He’s extremely likeable, well-spoken, and presents himself with dignity and ambition. Because he is 18, Maxwell can no longer be part of the foster care system like his brother. Maxwell’s social worker recommended he live at the Long Beach Rescue Mission’s newly built Timothy House, which opened this March to serve young men ages 18-24. 

The house is already full, demonstrating the extreme need in our community for just such a place with its particular mission. Providing young men without a home a place to live, with guidance to get on the right track and not repeat the cycle that landed them in this situation at such a young age.

Maxwell has big plans for getting his life back on track and becoming an inspiration to others. His interests include photography, modeling, design, and social media. He encourages others to follow him on Instagram:@ballerpresence.

Maxwell’s story is a reminder of the hardships so many in our community face. It’s also a reminder of how shelter is a blessing to those without a home. Now, the Long Beach Rescue Mission - which remains a private, Christian-based, community-funded shelter - is expanding its care to help not only those who have lost a home, but young men like Maxwell who have never even had the opportunity to live in a stable home during childhood.

It doesn’t take more than a few minutes with Maxwell to be thankful that he’s getting a chance, for the first time in his life, to live somewhere with dignity. 

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Follow Maxwell on IG: @ballerpresence