Stop and look...

Stop and look...
Bill started to chase the homeless guy away from the store parking lot yet again, but this time something stopped him. This time Bill looked at him… really looked him in the face, “What are we doing this for? You hang around, I ask you to leave, and we keep doing this week after week. What’s up?”

The two men started a dialogue then for the first time, surprisingly finding some common ground as they identified mutual family friends. Some similarities of growing up in similar neighbourhoods emerged. Of being close in age.

How did the homelessness come about?
A bad workplace accident that kept this man hospitalized for almost a year, during which time he lost his apartment and much of his stuff. Left with brain injury he was discharged to go back to a life he no longer recognized, eventually ending up on the street.

“Do you have any money? What about a Disability claim?” Bill wanted to know. Hearing that the paperwork itself was the problem, Bill brought in another friend, and the three of them helped to fill out the correct paperwork – a beginning to life off the street.

Bravo to this businessman who took a moment to stop and look, who found out to help, and then made a difference in someone’s life.