For Russell Love, a Happy Family Reunion : L.A. Homeless Man, Traced Through Ad, Returns to Mother in Texas

He had to borrow a key from a neighbor and scale a 6-foot-high chain-link fence surrounding his mother’s home. He then had to wait two days for her return.

But Russell Love--who had been homeless in Los Angeles until he was contacted in a remarkable display of luck through a classified advertisement--has been reunited with his mother in Houston.

“It feels great to be home,” said Love, who recently turned 28. “It’s nice to be a family again after being a traveler.”

Love, who preferred to wander and was a bit embarrassed by his situation, had not talked to his mother in two years and had not seen her for four years when she advertised last month in The Times for him to call home.

Another homeless man saw the ad and called The Times; a reporter for the newspaper located Love, talked with his mother and wrote about him. After talking to the reporter, Love called his mother, Beverly Elliott, who sent him an open-date airline ticket so he could return home.

Problem was, the first available flight was Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and Love could not reach his mother by phone about his travel plans. By the time he arrived in Houston, Elliott and her husband were 300 miles away, visiting her daughter. When the couple returned to Houston on Sunday with his sister and brother-in-law, Love was waiting.

“My husband said he thought Russell might be in the house because he heard music,” Elliott said from Houston on Tuesday. “He opened the front door and I saw Russell standing in the hallway. We just grabbed each other and hugged and hugged. Everybody was thrilled.”

Calls About Movie

The family spent the next few days getting reacquainted. Love met his 7-month-old nephew, Travis. He watched home movies and a video of his sister Lisa’s wedding two years ago.

Love also has learned that he is a little bit of a celebrity, something he isn’t thrilled about; his mother has received calls from three Hollywood companies about a movie on his odyssey.

“We haven’t made up our mind about this movie stuff,” Elliott said. “Russ isn’t real interested. I’m not going to push him. I’ll let him tell them himself.”

Elliott does not want any unnecessary pressure on her son, who left Houston four years ago when the area economy soured.

Love had trouble finding work in Los Angeles and had been sleeping under a blanket on a strip of asphalt in the back of a Western Avenue parking lot. Nevertheless, when he arrived home, he seemed healthy.

“He’s looking real good,” Elliott said of her slender, blond son. “He looks sharp in the new clothes we bought. He did catch a light cold before he left L.A.”

In the few days that he has been home, Love has lined up a job: He will help remodel offices owned by his brother-in-law, a Houston lawyer.

“My son-in-law owns five different homes he’s fixing up and a big office building he’s making into attorney’s suites,” Elliott said. “Russell has worked with people building a couple of houses and he knows how to build cabinets and put up Sheetrock.

“I think he plans to look for work that’s more permanent. I think he’s happy. And I think he plans to stay, which everybody wants. Everything’s looking good. It’s a happy ending.”