The things we have to give thanks for

[billvon 2,400]

I was feeling a little sorry for myself yesterday.  It was close to the anniversary of the death of my father, and not talking to him on Thanksgiving was the end of a ~40 year tradition.  And we cancelled our local (small) plans to isolate since the infection rates were going up so fast here.  So it was just us.

Today around 4:30pm I was working in the office and the doorbell rang.  Outside was a stranger about 30 years old named Mark Morales.  He said he was lost and freezing; he had no shirt on and said he had been walking for four days.  And San Diego isn't freezing by any means but even 55 degrees gets pretty cold after dark with no shirt.  "What can we do to help?" Amy asked.  The obvious thing to do would be to call the police but she wanted to give him other options, because that can go poorly for people like him.

"Call the police maybe?" he said.  Well that worked.  Amy called them and spent a few minutes with a confused police operator, since nothing bad had happened and she was careful to emphasize that he was not threatening or (apparently) dangerous.  Finally she defaulted to "we'll send an officer."

Then the dog ran out the open door and started jumping on him and licking him.  I pulled her off and dragged her back inside.  Amy took over the dog and the kids and I went to get him a blanket, a sweatshirt and some food and bottled water.  I gave them to him and sat outside with him for the 15 minutes it took the cops to get there.

His story was pretty confused, but included that he lived in east LA, his father kicked him out, he never wanted to see his father again, he didn't want to go home, he wanted to go home and he had been in AA but they beat the crap out of him.  He had been to a hospital where they had "knocked him out" and injected him with a chip that was tracking him.  He had been walking for four days; someone dropped him off in Mexico and he had walked here.  They dropped him off outside town.  They dropped him off downtown.  He said he was schizophrenic and he didn't want to take the drugs any more.  They wouldn't give him the drugs.  He was gay during the day but at night he found the Lord.  He found our house by the christmas lights (lights that I had finished putting up five minutes before.)

The cops finally came and I made it as clear as I could that he was completely nonthreatening the whole time and was just lost.  I think it worked because they treated him about as well as could be expected, emphasizing over and over that they were not arresting him, he was not in trouble, they wouldn't make him go to a hospital - but if he was asking people to call the police they had to at least take him to the station and talk to him, and figure out where he could go next.  I told them about the schizophrenia and the comments about being off his meds.  They walked off with him and I didn't see them again.

And after thinking about what his problems must be like, and what kind of future he could hope for - my problems seemed pretty small.

[Nataly 38]

Funny how someone else's mess can make your own life seem pretty good...

So nice that you cared and listened to him.  Maybe a bit of kindness was all he needed at that moment.

[NewGuy2005 51]

Well done.  A little patience and concern can work wonders.

[wmw999 2,123]

That poor, lucky, man. Yours was the right place for him to show up
Wendy P.