January 22, 2009

• People

  Today does not feel like a day to talk about what I have done recently, the mundane motions I go through in every day life, things I watch or read or listen to. What I eat or wear or drink. No. Today I’m doing something I don’t do often and I am delving into the past. Because right now, as depressed as I am, I feel very blessed.

  I have met some amazing people in my 22 year tenure on this earth. I have also met some horrible people. I have met people who I never want to meet the likes of again and I have met people who I hope to be like someday.  I’m gonna write about some of those good people right now.

  Right now I am focusing on when I was in Job Corps and when I was in Florida, because those four years or so were very turbulent. There was a lot of emotional turmoil and there was a lot of unsteadiness.

  Irmi was a friend, and a mother, and a wonderful person. She provided guidance and companionship and friendship to a girl she had never met before, let me stay at her place on weekends when I had been kicked out of my home, fed me, let me watch her children for some extra money, and let me practice my german with her. She hardly knew me and she trusted me with that open heart of hers. I’ll never forget her.

  One weekend I was staying at a friends place and they were out of food, broke until the next payycheck came along. She was pregnant and her family would not help her out, so her fiancee and I walked a mile and a half to a supermarket to panhandle some money for food. We asked one young woman, who, it turned out, was coming in for her shift at the store. She heard the story and bought us 70 dollars worth of food, and gave us bus money for the trip back to the apartment. I never found out her name.

  Sean was a boy I met when I first moved to Florida. I found myself without a place to stay, and he gave me the key to his apartment while he was away on vacation for a month. I had a roof over my head, food, a shower every day. I also had a computer and access to the internet, so I could find a job and a good place to live. He helped me out quite a bit when I was in florida.

  Cathy offered me a job as a housekeeper and a dog-sitter after Sean came back. She also offered me a room in her house, with her husband and their handyman. I was with them for about four months, until her husbands alzheimers got worse and he decided to fire me without warning one day. Even though that ended up in me being homeless yet again, I still thank them for the time I spent there.

  One time (I was still living with Cathy) while I was visiting a friend on the weekend, I lost my wallet. I had no money and therefore the bus I was waiting on wasn’t gonna offer me a ride to that friends house. Some random person saw me walking around in what turned out to be a really bad neighborhood, and stopped his car. I trusted my instincts and got in. He bought me lunch, gave me fifty dollars, and took me to my friends house. I never saw him again, and I don’t even know his name, but he was another good person.

  After Ron (Cathy’s husband)  fired me I had 25 dollars to live off of. I ended up making my way back to the apartment complex Sean stayed in, since I had made several friends there (this was also where my at the time boyfriend lived, but I couldn’t stay with him, that had gotten me into the whole mess to begin with). One of them offered me a place to stay for a night, and the use of internet, and a ride to the next person I met. His name was Vic. He was a criminal justice lawyer and had a really big house. I stayed with him for a week, and that week was very fun. The first night I was with him he took me out to go see a movie.

  By the next week I had acquired a job with some amazing people, Jack and Nannette. I ended up staying with them for almost six months, I loved it there and there were many times I had wished I never left there to move in with my ex again. Anyways, they were moving from houston to orlando, and wouldn’t be here for another week, so I needed to find another place to stay, Vic was leaving on vacation and he couldn’t just leave me there alone.

  Dave and Christine were very cool people. They didn’t have a big place, and they offered me a place for a week if I would just kind of clean up a little (they were renovating) I had fun there, they were really good people and accepted me in like they would have a good friend.  I stayed with them until Jack and Nannette came and picked me up.

  There are so many other stories I could tell. So many other wonderful people who have touched my life in big and small ways to make it better, but I will stop here. I want to thank all these people even though chances are I will never see or hear from them again. You made me believe in humanity again, you made me hope that someday people would be better than they are now, and some of you probably saved my life. Thank you.

  ~Mari

  • 3:10 pm
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