Joe the Family Man

Those of you that don’t know me I live in a historical part of town here in our big city. Our home is 108 year old victorian. We took 5 years before moving into and gutted it down to the rafters and more or less re-built the entire home back to the original state.

We love our home, but because it is in a historical area in the city we have a few crazies that may walk thru our neighborhood to get too the local park to drink their wine under the trees there.

There is a set of six wino’s that frequent thru and meet to drink together. they are really harmless and I have even spoken a “hello” to them from time to time. We don’t see much of them in the winter, but when spring hits, they hit the park.

So, last week I seen a few of them (it was a little warmer that day and they came out to drink at the park) I had just cleaned out the Attic and had a few things to get rid of and one of the guy’s asked if he could look thru it and take anything he may want, I told him “of course, just please don’t strow it about and when he finished, just pile it back up for the trash pickup” he agreed and I went into the house. Later on I looked out back and there must have been 9 guy’s back there going thru out trash! I walked back there and asked if there was a problem? They said ‘No”, But that they really liked my Trash and would clean it up when done…….and they did 2 hours later.

So, this one guy now thinks I’m his friend….which I do like him, he is nice and has told me his story of how his wife passed away from cancer 16 years ago and he lost his home there after and has been homeless since, how he hasn’t spoken to his daughter in 10 years, but he knows where she works and he sometimes walks to her place of employment and watches her thru the window without her knowing so he can feel that he is still involved with her, how he is a grandfather now, but has never meet her and he has made a name up for his grand-daughter since he has never been interduced to her…….His name for her is JoAnn, which was his wife’s name. So, I have become quite inter-twined with this gentleman in the last week or 2. I know that he has to report to the homeless shelter before 4pm or he may not get a bed that night to sleep in and how he has the menu to each day’s meals with him and he reads it like a newspaper and I have found that he is a real person with very strong values, just had some bad luck and is paying for with some bad choices due to lack of money.

It makes me wonder what if? What if I had that dealt to me? That I became homeless and lost my job, my husband, my daughter? What are my skills to make sure i pulled myself out of that so I wouldn’t become “joe the homeless guy”. I’m educated, but so is he with 4 years of college, he retired from one of the factories here in our city and has his check mailed to a post office box where he pays a month fee to keep. He tells me most of his money from retirement goes to booze and making sure his buddies have warm clothes in the winter. I find that he is really a happy man with very few needs, he thinks and talks alot about his buddies or he calls “his family” and he is quite sweet. I guess my point is, what makes him less then me? What makes his life less important then mine? Why do people not look homelessness in the eye and say “hello would you like a cup of coffee or a bite to eat?” Is it because we feel that we could be a paycheck away from that?

Well I have made that jump. Joe is my buddy/family now and when I see him at park under the tree, I park my car and walk over and set down with him and ask “whatcha drinking Joe” and he always replies “ripples my favorite” with a huge toothless smile.

At lunch yesterday I seen joe at the park, it was raining so he was under the park partition, so I parked my car and walked up to greet him, I notice he had a sandwich with him that he must have left over from the lunch special at the Rescue Mission here in town, he asked if I had ate lunch yet? I told him no, not yet, I was going over to the local fast food place and grab a sandwich……he insisted I take his sandwich and i insisted that he split it with me and he did…….I noticed he was so proud of the fact that he could give me something and I was so proud to have it.

Joe is now my friend who in 2 weeks has taught me so much and I’m grateful for him.