Can I Help You?

My youngest got her own apartment. Tired of living in a room in someone else’s home, she decided to bite the bullet and get a place. It takes a good portion of her monthly income but, at 27, she really wanted the privacy and freedom. It’s not fancy but it’s hers.

The other evening, while doing the dishes in her new apartment, she noticed a man walk by her window. He wasn’t part of the complex, he had a bike and was just hanging around. He had been there awhile and as darkness was coming shortly, my 5’3”, 100lb girl, decides to go out and speak to him since she wasn’t keen on him hanging around after dark. She says hello and asks him how he is doing. He’s a little bit nervous but eventually says he wants to go home. She asks where that is and he says he doesn’t have one. She notices he’s missing a leg. “Can I do anything for you?”, she asks. He tells her he’s hungry. “Okay, give me a second” she replies.

This girl of mine has been my food buddy all her life. Even the last time we were together, we would share meals, neither one of us able to consume an entire plate on our own. It just so happened that earlier that day she had purchased one of our old favorites and more than half was left. Good, solid New Mex food. She gathered what she had, got a bottle of water and sent him on his way.

She said to me, “You know mom, I realize that most of us are just one step away from being in his position. I would love to think that if my dad was out there, that there would be someone to send a little love his way. Someone to care.”

Her dad is about as close to that position as anyone I know. May I see his face, or my kid’s face, and show love to someone who needs it. I learn so much from my kids. Being someone who has lived in a lot of fear all my life, someone who needs to control the situation, I’d like to be more like my girl and be brave.