This evening, I joined a group from my church to do this. I’ve done it many times before and thought I knew what to expect.
I did not expect to see someone I knew there, and not this person either. He seemed to recognize me in the line, and I wondered if the scroungy long-haired man with missing teeth in front of me could possibly be who I thought he was. He sat down close enough to the serving line that I could hear him speak, and yes, it was him. I knew he had lost his job in a downsizing several years ago but not that anything like this had happened to him. I was hoping to go over and say hello to him, but I saw him leave before I had a chance to do so.
If there was even an incident illustrating that anyone could potentially land on desperate times, it was this one.
There’s an old saying “Change the name and the tale is told about you.”
I never thought I’d be homeless, but I spent six weeks in a homeless shelter last summer. Most of the people there were people who had fell on hard times.
I volunteered in a shelter* on weeknights for almost 5 years. One of my tasks was teaching remedial courses to move clients into full time employment. Like nearwildheaven, I had the strange coincidence of encountering someone I knew. One of my students was a high school classmate of mine – from 40 years earlier. It was an odd situation, but we enjoyed trading stories of goofy teachers. I never found out what brought her to the shelter though.
*Convenient shorthand for our charity. More of an intervention organization than a shelter – all volunteer group taking new-homeless and providing meals, childcare, training and legal advice to get them restarted in the workforce.
I strongly suspect that more happened to him than just losing his job. That’s usually the case. Perhaps he had to deal with things like the death of his parents, a serious illness (and not because of the bills; the psychological issues that go along with it), etc. and maybe started drinking, gambling, or engaging in some other destructive behavior.
AFAIK, he’s never been married and has no children; he’s in his mid to late 50s and I don’t think he’s gay.
I forgot to mention that I told one of the other servers about this as we were cleaning up, and he said that he once worked with a man who was a really bad alcoholic for a long time, and none of them knew it until he didn’t show up for work one day. The boss called a meeting and told them, with the man’s permission, that he had decided to seek treatment for alcoholism. He somehow managed to find a way to drink a fifth of vodka every night, and not bring it to work the next day, and one day he decided he’d had enough and checked into a hospital.
I knew he had lost his job in a downsizing several years ago but not that anything like this had happened to him. I was hoping to go over and say hello to him, but I saw him leave before I had a chance to do so.