in the spirit;

i was headed to eat this evening when stopped by this lady in the parking lot; now normally i am pretty rude and jes keep walking but for some reason i decided to stop and hear what she had to say.. she first off apologized for interrupting us and began to tell me "her story" - which it seems everyone has when they are stopping to ask you for something; usually for money of course. surprisingly i sat and listened to the whole story and first off she said she had jes come down from oakland to take her kids to sea world and the zoo or something like that; i guess she sed her boss gave her some free tickets and they took a road trip down here to go. well, she sed her car was stolen from that very parking lot where i was jes parked.. humm; that struck me as kinda odd cus i dont usually hear of too many cars being stolen from a restaurant in mission valley.. ((and ur from oakland again??)) but for some reason; again, i continued to listen. she explained how she had already contacted the shelter downtown and they had agreed to let her and her two daughters stay the night. she sed she left her purse and luggage in the car when it was stolen ((again; strikes me as odd - but strangely enuff i would do that at times; but never again will i)) and had no cash left to get a hotel, etc. so as she continued to tell her story; explaining how the police came and did a report but assumed her car was probably halfway across the border by now. by this point you could tell she was fighting back tears in her voice as she apologized and said she was so embarrassed to have to even stop and ask a stranger for help.

i cut her off, not in a rude way but it was chilly out and i was hungry, and asked her what exactly she needed to help her and her family out tonite. she simply stated all she needed was help with getting on the trolley to take downtown. now it is very odd for me to have cash on me, but for some reason i had a little cash on me that i hadnt spent yet and decided to go ahead and give it to her. i had never seen someone so grateful for what seemed like change i would have probably wasted on something i didnt need anyways. she called her daughters out and away they went on the trolley. she seemed very humble and grateful. i didnt give her much; but i hope i did help with what she needed tonite.

this incident got me thinking tho. how often do we really blow off strangers thinking they are jes out begging or asking for something when they dont try to help themselves.. and what if those people are really average every day people like us; who jes so happened to catch a case of bad luck and needed jes that lil extra something to get them where they are going or back on the right track? honestly if something happened to me out here, i would pretty much be in the same situation she was. she had no family here and not many people to call - whatever the case; i am glad i could help.