The Homeless
78
A Day in Sam's Shoes
The homeless people really touch my heart. This is a story about a day of a homeless man's life. I hope you will read it and find compassion in your heart for those less fortunate than you are.
Early Morning
Sam wakes up and rubs the sleep from his eyes. His back aches with pain from sleeping on the bench at the local park. The icy cold wind blows through his torn clothing and cuts him like a knife. He pulls off the covers (a box that he found in a dumpster) and sits up. He watches as the early morning joggers are running past him and knows he will have to move on soon. “Today is the day that I am going to find a job,” Sam thinks to himself.
Sam proceeds to walk to the Burger King on 5thstreet. “What you got for me today Tina”, Sam asks the tall, blonde manager. She smiles and responds with, “We had a drive-off and I saved it just for you Sam. It’s a sausage biscuit. Here’s you a cup to get a drink.” Tina feels sorry for Sam and gives him food when she can. Sam takes the biscuit and fills his cup with Dr. Pepper. After he scarf’s down his meal, he walks to the register and asks Tina, “Do you think you can give me a job today?” “I would love to Sam, but we are fully staffed,” Tina replies. Sam thanks Tina for the hospitality and goes to the restroom. He takes out the small tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush, and a bar of soap from his pocket. After freshening up, he heads out to finish his task.
Lunch
Sam has been to everyplace that he can think of to try and find a job, but has been rejected each time; just like every other day. Sam does not have the credentials to get a great job, he would be happy with any job. However, the economy is so bad that no one is hiring.
Sam had to quit school in the 7thgrade when his parents passed away. He had to raise his siblings. He worked at the local gas station pumping gas during the day, and at night he would bag groceries at Piggly Wiggly. When his younger brothers grew old enough to get out on their own, Sam got married and started a family. He worked at the cotton mill and was able to provide a decent living for his family.
Discouraged with the fact that he can’t find any work, Sam finds a comfortable spot on the ground and sits down. It has warmed up a bit and Sam is not so cold anymore. He looks at his old, worn out clothing and wished he had something decent to wear. His shoes are full of holes and the soles are worn out. As people walk by, they look down at him for a quick glance, and then turn their heads with disgrace. Sam knows what they are thinking, “I wish someone would remove this piece of garbage off of the street.”
He starts to reminisce about the days he had a house, a wife, and a child. Things were so perfect during that time. He remembers little Lacy wrapping her arms around him. “I love you daddy.” She would say with that beautiful smile. “You are the bestest daddy ever. “ Sam smiles for a brief moment as he visualizes Lacy’s pretty blonde hair and her big blue eyes. Then he thinks about Tammy and what a beautiful woman she was. They were the perfect family. Although they didn’t have a lot, they had enough to be happy. Sam feels a tear run down his cheek. “I have to move on.” He tells himself. Then, he heads off to try to make some money.
Evening
Sam is standing on the busiest street corner in town. All of the wealthy people live here and they are getting off of work around this time. As the lawyers and doctors drive past in their BMW’s and SUV’s, Sam holds his sign.
Will work for food, or any amount of money you can pay. Please help me.
He can feel the sweat pouring off of his forehead. He has been standing here for three hours. Not one person has stopped but there have been a few remarks made such as; get a life old man; why don’t you get a job, I’m not giving you my money to go and buy beer. There was one man that threw an empty potato chip bag at Sam and said, “This sure was good, I bet you wish you had some chips!”
Sam just ignored the comments and kept holding his sign. He was used to this type of treatment. Although People assumed that homeless people were all drunks, Sam had never taken a drink in his whole life. An ambulance passes by and terror enters Sam’s mind.
He has a flashback of that awful September day that changed his life forever. He was working the day-shift at the cotton mill when he got the call. “Sam, there has been a terrible accident; Lacy and Tammy have been killed.” Sam’s brother had just delivered him the worst news he could ever receive. He dropped the phone and took off running out the door. He called his brother back and got the information on where the accident was at. When Sam arrived at the scene, he saw two bodies covered in sheets. He tried to get to them, but was pushed back.
“Lacy, Tammy, please don’t be.” Sam screamed. “Let me over there, that’s my daughter and my wife.” Sam pleaded. The officer let him through and as he pulled back the first sheet, he saw little Lacy lying there. He broke down and could not bear to look at the other body. Two days later, they were buried and Sam had a nervous breakdown.
Sam had to be placed in the mental institution for six months. He did not have any health insurance, but the county paid for his stay. When he was released, he tried to go back to work. However, he could not focus on his job; he was unable to run the machines because their sounds reminded him of screeching tires. After a month back at work, Sam lost his job.
He was already 6 months behind on his mortgage and had no family to help. His brothers could barely make it on their own, and there was no one else. Sam struggled and tried. He did get another job, but they had to cut back after he was there for two months. One year after the accident, Sam’s house was foreclosed on. Sam had nothing left to live for anymore. He gave up and headed out to live on the streets.
Night
Sam is startled back to reality when some teens in a Corvette drive past and yell, “Hey there you old bum, why don’t you get a real job like the rest of us!.” Sam takes down his sign since it is beginning to get dark. He is really hungry so he heads to the Mission Bound Church to get a warm meal.
He waits in line for two hours and then gets his portion for the day. “God bless you,” the sister says as she serves him his food. Sam looks at her and says, “He just did, thank you ma'am.” Sam eats his food and then offers to wash some dishes for the hospitality. The sisters reject his offer, so he heads off to find a place to sleep.
Sam knows that tomorrow is Saturday morning and the park will be crowded. The local police will not let him sleep there so he must go to his other location. He heads for the underpass by highway 165 after he tears him a piece of box off that he found behind the Jiffy Mart. When he arrives home, he lies down and stares at the stars in the sky. “Such a beautiful night," Sam says to himself. Then he says a little prayer, “Lord, if you are real, and you can hear me, please give me my life back.” Finally he nods off to sleep knowing he must face the world again tomorrow.
Don't Judge so Much
The moral to this story is that homelessness is real. I have always tried to help those in need. I know that some homeless people put themselves there and may be alcoholics. However, you don't know that person's story. Please think the next time you walk or drive past a homeless person. What if it were someone you loved? How would you want them to be treated?
Life is all about climbing that mountain and falling back down. It is all good when you are on top, but you fall down really quick. Let's make a difference in our society. The next time you see a homeless person, don't judge them, ponder upon how they got there to begin with.
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Comments
rb11, you ask a good question. The body does have "the fight or flight" mchanism built in for survival. Furthermore, when your brain will go into a "protection" mode when you have seen too much. I know too well about these things from my panic attacks.
What keeps the Sam's in the world going? That is a good question. I suppose that in all of us there is hope and a will to survive. When life is at it's worst, we can only hope for a better tommorrow.
Thank you for your thought provoking questions.
enjoyed the hub....... sad to see people like Sam,,,,,, and who are we to know how or why they are there......
Thank you for your comment Brenda.
I am teary eyed reading your story Useful Knowledge. Sometimes we do not really know the story of each person and it would be best to not judge anyone no matter how challenging and awful the circumstances may be. Thank you for sharing Sam's story.
This heartwarming hub is part of the Hubnuggets this week. My congratulations to you! I hope you could find the time to check it out and participate by promoting your hub to your friends and family. http://hubpages.com/_143/hub/10-Self-Publishing-Ne
Thank you Ripplemaker for taking the time to read this hub. I am so honored that you choose this story for this weeks nomination.
I do hope that it will help to bring some humanity out in our society.
This is a wonderful hub, caring and thought-provoking. How easy it would be to fall down that mountain. Now, more than ever, we need to help each other!
Congratulations on your nomination, Useful Knowledge!
You now have a new fan.
We, the HubNuggets Team, wish you great success... fame... fortune... etc.
All the best!
- ProCW & the HubNuggets Team
God showed me that as soon as I judge someone unjustly, I will walk the same path! I am not afraid of whatever walk the Lord has for me, as I know wherever we are, and whomever we're with, He is there to bring healing and restoration. The Salvation Army offers work rehabilitation centers (ARC) where they house and feed the homeless, and teach them skills while they earn money. I hand out this information when I see someone and I feel led to give them this. For truly, to give a man a fish means he will go hungry again, but to teach him to fish means he will never go hungry again. Love, that of compassion and mercy is the greatest gift of the Lord and we should walk in it! Amen.
So glad you were nominated for hubnuggets so I could find this beautiful hub. I see the signs you are talking about and they are becoming more prominent. Hard times and circumstances can hit anyone at anytime. Compassion, love, charity and understanding can never be over-rated.
Thank you so much for sharing this emotional story and reminding us all of what really is important!
Thank you Carrie for your inspirational comment.
emohealer, thank you as well for your insight. I hope that we can all help each others during these hard times.
Great story, Useful Knowledge. I still to this day see homeless people no matter what town I live in. When I was in Upstate New York I saw them on occassion. Truth be told, they're everywhere and if you don't see them, it's most likely because they are ashamed are were told to "go somewhere else."
Oops! Almost forgot! By the way, congrats on your nomination. I'm pulling for you!
Homelessness is one of our society's great shames, thanks for writing this.
Thanks for your comments dohn and Bob.
Also, thank you for pulling for me on the nomination.
Very well written hub about a subject that most would like to pretend is just not happening...
I always wonder what desperate circumstances have brought so many to their knees and makes them live in the streets. I know our soup kitchen that I help out at weekly serves more then three times the amount of meals then it used to. It seems that weekly there are new desperate faces amongst the regulars seasoned ones.
kindest regards Zsuzsy
Hiya found it...... aw it is sooooo sad what can we do for them..... only try our best to help and understand
This hub brought me to tears. Thank you for sharing.
It seems that the community leaders in my home town would like to make us believe that the homeless don't exist by telling them to move along when they should be doing what they can to help.
It saddens me to see any homeless person, but where I'm from they tend to be war veterans the most and to put it bluntly this just pisses me off. How in the world do we allow these men and women to serve our country and then turn our backs on them?
Anyway, sorry about the long comment. I guess this subject sturs up lots of emotion in me. :)
Great hub!
Zsuszy, thank you for your comment. I also want to tke the time to thank you for helping by working in the soup kitchen.
You are doing something to make a difference.
Stephanie, thank you for bringing out the point of our war veterans being homeless. I feel the same way, if they can serve our country, can we not take care of them?
Very heart-felt comment.
Very powerful hub. Thank you for sharing Sam's story. It makes you think about the people behind the homeless epidemic. It's so easy to pre-judge, isn't it. Perhaps if we all acknowledged that "There but for the grace of God, go I," we would be a little more compassionate. God bless you, and congratulations on your nomination. I'm pulling for you.
DoodleLy,
Thank you for your kind comment and the nomination. I always try not to pre-judge. I always consider that every one has thier own battles to fight and life deals everyone a different deck.
DoodleLy,
Thank you for your kind comment and the nomination. I always try not to pre-judge. I always consider that every one has thier own battles to fight and life deals everyone a different deck.
We all need to remember that this could be any one of us at any time.
very sad story........truth is most Americains live from paycheck to paycheck and homelessness could become a reality in a few short months....
UK,
You write extremely well and have brought a very difficult subject to the forefront. Your story affected me a little differently, as I work with this population..It brought the weight of the world upon me in thinking this could have been one of my clients...You obviously have a talent for writing and a compassion for tough social issues. I was hoping you would have more at the end of the hub on how to help the homeless rather than not to judge, but that is just the social worker in me ;)
great hub well said !
Thank you for your comments.
Ms. Chevious,
It is a difficult topic. I just wanted to bring awareness with this hub. I hope that people will look at the homeless with different eyes and if possible, do thier part to help.
I am happy that you do your part working with the homeless.
Congrats on your win!! Yeah!! You've come a long way and I'm so very proud to be your fan!
Thank you Candi!!
if everyone only realized how very close we all are to being Sam
thank you for sharing.
Most people don't realize how close they are to becoming homeless. Thanks for writing this sensitive, compassionate story. I hope Sam finds a job one of these days but, because he has no address and we're in "this economy," I doubt he will. Anyway, I wrote a related hub entitled Depression Blues: Tent Cities Among Us. Please check it out. Later!
I began working with homeless people when our agency was awarded funding for case management services. I am ashamed to admit I have said some of the mean things people said to Sam. I was guilty of jumping to conclusions without ever getting to know the person. One of my clients had been a nuclear physicist. He got laid off after 14 years when thue US started scaling back on nuclear research. He lost his job, his wife left him because their standard of living declined, and she took their children. Then his car was repossessed and his home went into foreclosure. Everyday he looked for a job but was overqualified for many and there were no jobs in his career field. The day the Sheriff served him with papers to leave his home he was depressed and a friend offered him some beer. These events changed his life. The services we were able to provide for people like him got many off the street. I wish we had more programs to help people to help themselves.
thanks for your topic and thats always remind us to help thim because it can be one of us at any time god help them.....
thanks for your topic and thats always remind us to help thim because it can be one of us at any time god help them.....
Very good article. I will think about your article the next time a helpless person reaches for help. My life is also tough but it is not that bad after all.
Thank you for sharing this tale so filled with compassion. I'm sick of hearing people (young people) say 'don't give money to that bum (drunk, junkie, whatever insult they can think of). I find it odd how people can so villify the poor. And even drunks need to eat.
"The poor will always be among us", says the Good Book, and have we ever wondered why? It is the privileged, arrogant,and uncaring society that is 'judged' for their lack of compassion. Homelessness need not happen if the rich and powerful would only start caring. God bless you for sharing your heart with us.
Useful Knowledge.....after you commented on my hub, I searched for yours. I'm glad that I read this hub. Very "touching." We both seem to have our hearts in the same place ;
Best, GPAGE
Thanks to all who have posted. We can make a difference if we try.
Thanks so much for writing this - I found this on GPAGE's site - homelessness and hunger in America is a disgrace - we can spend billions on war but not provide food and shelter to people in need. Your hub shows how a good person who has played by the rules can lose everything and fall through the cracks. Kartika
thanks for writing this and showing that you care about people. People that are suffering and suffering in so many ways so needlessly if more of us would help out !
you might like to read my blog 'homelessness sleeping rough and Streetswags' here: www.barry-rutherford.newsvine.com
Disabled, been homeless, it took over seven years to get the accurate diagnoses to get social security. Thanks for writing this. You chose a good example for someone the general public can sympathize with.
The one thing a lot of the people who look down at homeless are afraid of is the truth -- that they're only a paycheck or an accident away from it themselves. That it could be them. That there isn't any difference.
There was a woman whose house burnt down. She got separated from her husband to different shelters. Lost her kids. I met her about three weeks later. She had nothing and the kids had been moved away to another state, her husband was someone she barely saw any more, she was numb like a zombie and they'd routed her into some work program that paid less than minimum wage at unskilled work that supposedly was training to get her into a real job. She had no choice about that assignment and no sick days, she was dragging to work in horrible shape so she wouldn't get thrown out of the shelter. Only a couple of months after she'd had your basic "normal" life.
Anyone who has it rough in life can wind up in that depth of trouble.
Don't get sick. At all.
Right in the story you told, there's a simple point. He wound up having a nervous breakdown for all too natural reasons and afterward, no chance to put together a life. Mental illness or physical, don't stumble or you'll get run over. That's what it's like.
The best thing you can do for a guy like that is to give him an odd job and be generous paying for it, don't try to cheat him or underpay for the work. Especially if you know someone who's sliding and still has the housing but just needs to make ends meet, before it's all gone.
Don't stop being their friend when it happens to someone you know. Don't drive them out to the shelter and then cut them off your list as if you never knew them. Those slammed doors hurt worse than most of the rest, when they were friends you thought you could trust.
Thanks for your hub on the homeless. So good to know some people are looking at them and being compassionate towards them. The wealthiest nation in the world should not have any poor people or homeless. What does this say about us? That's the key issue here. I believe in the spirit of people like you to end this situation, thanks you again for bringing this out. Many times I think we are afraid of the person lying on the street. Fear has a way of separating us from them. We should put ourselves in their shoes, as you say, this could happen to anyone of us. Thanks again and well done!
Wow, the weekly interview brought me here. Great stuff and great story. I suppose you do see them everywhere, but when they become 'common' they become invisible and most of us simply walk by. I admit my guilt.
A truly moving story. It is a shame we can't create a community that cares enough to build social institutions that pick up those who have fallen and help them stand on their feet.
barryrutherford-thank you for taking the time to read this hub.
robertsloan2-thank you for sharing your touching story with us. I hope that more people will realize that we all could someday be homeless.
Chenmikehk-Thanks for stopping by to comment.
Last Hand Willie-I agree, I wish there was more we could do.
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rb11 says:
5 months ago
You pull at the heart strings with this one, but it raises the question What's the purpose? Struggling, hopelessness, hunger what's the purpose? and if we rise above this we die anyway, I would ask "what keeps Sam going"? The body when injured has a built in device for survival, do you think this carries over into the human spirit, no matter how unbearable it is for all the Sam's in the world???
Great Hub..Regards