After doing eight years of street outreach, you’d think that we’d be pretty hardened to the tragedies of homelessness. But there are times when it can still get to us and affect us deeply.
Recently, we went out on outreach, and we came across some very cold individuals. One individual an elderly gentleman was laying on the ground, shivering.
We asked him if he wanted a snack pack. ‘No,’ he said softly. Asked him if he wanted a bottle of water. ‘No,’ he replied. Asked him if he needed socks, a coat, a cup of coffee or a sandwich from Dunkin Donuts. Another, ‘No.’
We told him that we felt he shouldn’t be outside laying on the ground with nothing but a thin blanket. We told him that we’d like to try to help him to get into a shelter. With a sad, pitiful look, he just stared at us. Then, he said, ‘No, that’s okay. But thank you.’
To see a human spirit so broken, and it was broken; to see an old man who’d been beaten down so badly by life, to feel the pain of such a wounded soul, it just got to us, and we cried.