This is NOT my America!

Few of you know that I got a little part-time gig working for a major bank in Central Ohio several months ago.  I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to work at a job I like.  I work the 3-11 PM shift watching a bank of cameras.  A very good job for a Seasoned citizen. I have been blessed,  Tonight I had to stay over due to an overload of work for the company and the lack of manpower.  I don't mind as there is not much to go home to these days 'cept an ol' black cat.  She eats, sleeps and uses the liter box.  But tonight.............

I was watching my outside cameras and as it lightly rained saw two subjects huddle on a park bench in the small green space the bank has between the three buildings it own in the city.  I was and saw one subject was trying his best to cover the other person with a blanket.  They struggled and huddle as best they could trying to keep warm and dry.  After a while I had the opportunity to take a little stroll outside.  As I approached the two on the bench I could tell it was a man and a woman.  They were not young.  Most likely my age or slightly younger,  late fifties or so.  I had seen them earlier and chatted with them.  At the time they told me they had been to the outdoor concert a few blocks away and were on the way to their car.  Now it seemed a little different.

Betty and John I'll call them were homeless.  Their entire life was packed into a small suitcase with wheels and a large duffel bag.  They were not the typical homeless people you see in a major city.  They were as neat and clean as possible with combed hair and clothes that had been recently washed.  John explained the company he worked for had folded and recently his unemployment had run out.  He walked with a limp and worn "coke bottle" glasses.  Betty was a short little lady who kept apologizing for her hair not being brush but the local shelter was full tonight and she could find a mirror.  That explained what she was doing when I had first encountered them earlier, she was trying to use the window of the bank as a mirror to brush her hair.

John and Betty were articulate and polite while they explained they had used their last $50 for a motel the night before.  They neither asked for money or pity.  Both said this was just a little bump in the 31 years they had been married and they would survive.  They were going to wait until morning in the park and try to call a friend on the west side of town to see if they could help them by making some phone calls to local agencies on Monday.  I was not allowed to allow them in the bank of course however pointed them to a enclosed atrium that would keep them dry and out of the 14 mph wind we were having tonight.  They were very grateful and said thanks them moved to the location.

I don't write this to brag how I helped a homeless couple.  I write this to thank Almighty God for the Wonderful wife He gave me, the three great children we raised and the soon to be 9 grandchildren I will have any day.  My parents raised me in a Christian home with Christian values and I am the recipient of that upbringing.  As my father said to me on more than one occasion,

Except for the Grace of God there go I.

Thanks mom and dad and thank you God.

Pray for the homeless and for those in need.  This is NOT my America!

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