In my last column, I wrote about a man I'd seen walking daily on the side of a country road. He had two prosthetic legs, and I was moved by his determination as I saw him day after day after day, seeming to gain momentum with each step.
Today's column is about another man walking. Age 22, he was waiting at the door of the Father Fred Foundation in Traverse City early one morning recently when the staff arrived. It was cold and damp out, and he said he'd been walking all night -- all the way from Northport.
He was weary, and limping, his shoes and socks soaked. He and his mom were homeless, he said, and she had gone to Charlevoix to live with a friend for a few weeks. Back in Leelanau County, he had been staying various places and trying to find work, as he had been for months, with no luck. Then he got word the previous evening that his mom had fallen seriously ill and was in the hospital in Charlevoix.
With no money or car, he walked from Northport through the night, to the foundation, hoping to get help with a bus ticket.
The staff got him some food and then got on the phone to check bus schedules. Indian Trails didn't go until around 8 that night.
A plan was devised for him to be picked up by Antrim County transit at the BATA Transfer Center in downtown Traverse City around noon. Antrim would take him part of the way, then Charlevoix's transit would pick him up and deliver him to the hospital. The foundation wrote checks for the two tickets: total cost $8.
The foundation also gives away used clothing and luckily, there was one -- count 'em, one -- pair of used men's socks on hand. He also found a pair of shoes that fit. His wet footwear went into a plastic bag to go with him.
Noting his worn feet, a staffer drove him downtown. On the way, she offered to buy him a hot meal at the restaurant around the corner from the bus station, but he declined. She asked if he had any money on him at all. He had none. She scrounged in her purse and gave him all that she could find -- $4.
As so many of us deal with various levels of job and economic challenges these days, it's become almost trite to say that as bad as things might seem, we know they could be a lot worse.
Then comes a story like this and you know that they really could be.
The problem is, there are just too many like this one right now.
Kathy Gibbons can at gibbonskath@yahoo.com. For more of Kathy's columns, log on to record-eagle.com/kathygibbons.
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