A young woman named Casey was grabbing a quick coffee at Dunkin Donuts recently when she looked out the window and saw a man scrounging for change on the side of the road. She noticed his ratty jacket and bowed shoulders and felt a twinge in her heart, but she turned her attention back to the counter and continued to place her order.
A little while later, the man came into the restaurant with about a dollar in change. Knowing that this amount of money was too little to be of much use, Casey walked up to the man, paid for his bagel and coffee, and asked if he wanted to sit with her.
For the next hour, Casey and the homeless man, whose name was Chris, talked about little aspects of one another’s lives. Casey talked about her infant son and the challenges that raising him involved, and Chris — well, Chris talked about things with Casey that he likely hadn’t shared with anyone in a long time. He talked about the death of his mother and his absentee father; he talked about the role of drugs in his life and the misery of a life on the streets; and he talked about the pain that he held in his heart for opportunities missed in his life.
Casey and Chris sat at the Dunkin Donuts for over an hour, until Casey realized that she was going to be late for class if she dawdled much longer. As she was rising to leave, Chris asked quickly for a pen and paper. Casey acquiesced, and Chris hurriedly scribbled a brief note, handing it to Casey and instructing her to read it in her car. Casey watched, quizzically, as Chris plodded out of the restaurant.
Back in her car, Casey’s curiosity got the best of her and she unfolded the note. There on the page, written sloppily and without much thought to punctuation, were a few sentences that she would never forget as long as she lived:
“I wanted to kill myself today, because of u I now do not. Thank u, beautiful person.”
Somewhere over the course of their friendly conversation, Chris had realized that life was worth living. Sometimes all that is needed to change or even save a life is an honest inquiry into someone’s day and a kind ear to let them share it with you.
