Post by Sam on Jun 14, 2007 8:44:29 GMT -6
Frank
I met a man on my early bus route and we spoke together often. I get easily attached to people for some reason and I care for them-body and spirit.
He wasn't a powerful man by any means but he had a powerful effect on me. I looked forward to seeing him in the mornings and started to catch myself getting sad when I did not see him at the bus stop.
Around Christmas time he came and sat by me and told me to open up my purse. I did so with no hesitation and from his pocket he produced about 20 little cigarette lighters and just dropped them inside my open purse.
"Merry Christmas!" he said with a little smile. I asked him what had happened, had he stopped smoking and he said, "No. I just can't afford to smoke anymore, so I don't need them." So, I immediately offered him a cigarette which he accepted but said he would take it home with him to enjoy later.
I noticed he walked with a limp and asked him was he OK.
He then pulled his pants leg up and showed me his artificial foot. He had started with a bad infection a little over a year ago and it just got worse and worse until they told him it would have to come off or he would die.
At the time he ran his own business, but by the time the medical bills came rolling in and he was finished with physical therapy, that was short lived, followed by more heavy debt causing a ficious cycle to start.
(Reading seemed to be his only comfort and every week he traveled to the library to take back a little bag of books and to pick out more books for the week.)
Still hopeful, he sat out to find employment with another company but was shunned time after time after time. He did finally find a job but they let him go because he could not keep up physically.
He became disheartened and went down to try to file for his disability. They very curtly told him that he was not disabled, and was capable of finding employment. They gave him $50 a month in food stamps, but no financial help was offered to his mounting bills.
He became frailer and frailer and I sat watching as this man basically shrank before my eyes.
He got on the bus recently and barely spoke to me. I was so glad to see him that I just continued to chew his ear off all of the way downtown. I noticed that he got on the bus at a strange spot that morning, but he didn't offer to explain and I didn't want to ask.
The next morning he again was at the bus stop but was barely able to board the bus. He sat down beside me and told me he wanted to apologise for being rude the day before. I told him I didn't even notice.
He was on his way to debter's court. (A modern day way of forcing the poor into buildings and leading them up in lines like a herd of animals to let them to make a payment arrangment-also tacking on hundreds of dollars to the bill for this service).
His leg was all swollen where it fit on the artificial foot they had put on him. He had walked all of the way
down town because he didn't have money for a transfer.
My heart broke.
That was the last time I have seen him. I have looked
and looked for him.
Yesterday, an elderly man got on the bus at the same apartment complex where Frank lived and I asked him if he knew him. He told me that the management there had kicked him out, forced him to move.
Where? I am going to the homeless shelters in town to try to find him. I have nothing to offer except my heart, my friendship. I can only imagine how frightened and alone he must feel, and I want him to know that I valued his friendship appreciated his sense of humor, and miss his fogged up, horn rimmed glasses
on the bus in the mornings.
Where have we come that a person sitting behind some desk somewhere can just make a split second decision that can send a man out into the streets? On a whim, or caught in a bad mood?
This could be you or me or our children some day soon.
Something has got to be done.....
Sam
I met a man on my early bus route and we spoke together often. I get easily attached to people for some reason and I care for them-body and spirit.
He wasn't a powerful man by any means but he had a powerful effect on me. I looked forward to seeing him in the mornings and started to catch myself getting sad when I did not see him at the bus stop.
Around Christmas time he came and sat by me and told me to open up my purse. I did so with no hesitation and from his pocket he produced about 20 little cigarette lighters and just dropped them inside my open purse.
"Merry Christmas!" he said with a little smile. I asked him what had happened, had he stopped smoking and he said, "No. I just can't afford to smoke anymore, so I don't need them." So, I immediately offered him a cigarette which he accepted but said he would take it home with him to enjoy later.
I noticed he walked with a limp and asked him was he OK.
He then pulled his pants leg up and showed me his artificial foot. He had started with a bad infection a little over a year ago and it just got worse and worse until they told him it would have to come off or he would die.
At the time he ran his own business, but by the time the medical bills came rolling in and he was finished with physical therapy, that was short lived, followed by more heavy debt causing a ficious cycle to start.
(Reading seemed to be his only comfort and every week he traveled to the library to take back a little bag of books and to pick out more books for the week.)
Still hopeful, he sat out to find employment with another company but was shunned time after time after time. He did finally find a job but they let him go because he could not keep up physically.
He became disheartened and went down to try to file for his disability. They very curtly told him that he was not disabled, and was capable of finding employment. They gave him $50 a month in food stamps, but no financial help was offered to his mounting bills.
He became frailer and frailer and I sat watching as this man basically shrank before my eyes.
He got on the bus recently and barely spoke to me. I was so glad to see him that I just continued to chew his ear off all of the way downtown. I noticed that he got on the bus at a strange spot that morning, but he didn't offer to explain and I didn't want to ask.
The next morning he again was at the bus stop but was barely able to board the bus. He sat down beside me and told me he wanted to apologise for being rude the day before. I told him I didn't even notice.
He was on his way to debter's court. (A modern day way of forcing the poor into buildings and leading them up in lines like a herd of animals to let them to make a payment arrangment-also tacking on hundreds of dollars to the bill for this service). His leg was all swollen where it fit on the artificial foot they had put on him. He had walked all of the way
down town because he didn't have money for a transfer.
My heart broke.
That was the last time I have seen him. I have looked
and looked for him.
Yesterday, an elderly man got on the bus at the same apartment complex where Frank lived and I asked him if he knew him. He told me that the management there had kicked him out, forced him to move.
Where? I am going to the homeless shelters in town to try to find him. I have nothing to offer except my heart, my friendship. I can only imagine how frightened and alone he must feel, and I want him to know that I valued his friendship appreciated his sense of humor, and miss his fogged up, horn rimmed glasses
on the bus in the mornings.
Where have we come that a person sitting behind some desk somewhere can just make a split second decision that can send a man out into the streets? On a whim, or caught in a bad mood?
This could be you or me or our children some day soon.
Something has got to be done.....
Sam
