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Kokomo Kootsie
8/17/2002
Nibbles- Bits & Pieces
Some One's!
She sat in a booth by the window, all alone. While my granddaughter, Tara, and I waited for our soup and sandwiches, I noted she too was waiting on her lunch, as nothing was set before her.
That would no doubt have been the end of it-except we were served and nothing was ever put on her table! There was no other customer, but we three, as the noon hour was past.
Since I sat at a table directly across from her booth, there was no where else, really, to focus my eyes, and I couldn't help but see, and then note, what she was doing, and wonder about her!
It was a very cold winter day, and Bob's Big Boy Restaurant was very warm and cozy, and smelled of fresh hot coffee-and food.
The little old lady began to close her eyes and nod off; and her pretty white haired head would drop down; then she'd pull it up quickly, trying so hard to stay awake.
She was so small and frail. It was hard to conclude she was a homeless street person.
Surely, she belonged to 'someone'; some one's mother, grandma? But why was she alone on a cold winter day, in a thin coat, no hat, scarf or gloves; sitting in a restaurant, without even a cup of coffee before her?
She was very clean, neat; how was it possible she was sitting there, so sleepy, and no order before her, just in, out of the cold. She wasn't far from the Mall, with it's many seats; she could have sat all day in the warmth and no one would have noticed her.
She was noticed at Bob's Big Boy! I discussed ordering food and coffee be taken over to her, or telling the waitresses to take her order and say it was taken care of. Tara and I both agreed, however, it might not please her. We were too reluctant to take that chance.
But I watched her and worried over her, and felt so badly about what could be her plight. I thought it could be me, down the road; one of my beloved children! It sent shivers down my spine; we never know, "but for the grace of God, there go I" what's in our future.
She was someone's baby once; someone's little girl; once a pretty teenager. No doubt loved as a bride, mother, and grandmother. If so, where were they now, when she surely needed them; she needed someone, then, as she sat there. And I still couldn't bring myself to step forward, to stand up and be counted, for her! The road is most certainly paved with good intentions, which does no one any good; neither you nor the one in need of help!
As she sat there, never glancing up, or around, when she wasn't falling asleep, she fiddled with a small clear plastic bag, opening and then folding it, rolling it into a small handful, over whatever little she had in it. She carried no purse.
When we had nearly finished our lunch, the manager came over to the waitress, who was near our table, and I watched, as he bent to whisper to her, eyes on the sweet little lady, and the waitress turned her head and flashed a glance toward the booth.
The lunch hour crowd had thinned, and the noise level had dropped. I didn't have to hear her words! I knew he was telling her to order the little lady out! She was reluctant to carry out that order; but she walked over to the booth; and when she turned away, the poor little lady began to get her coat pulled around her, and looking neither to left or right, walked slowly to the door and out into the cold wind.
All these years, I've lived over that day! All these years, I've regretted not taking a stand; something I could have done, should have done!
Too late! We paid our bill and hurried from that restaurant, and looked all over the parking lots for her. We never found her! She just vanished!
We were left to wonder, along with our own guilty regret, how could that big restaurant manage, be so hardened, he was able to send that harmless, helpless little lady, out in the cold. There was no one in there after we left.
He could have given her coffee; he could have given her food, a meal. There are those who argue, and are no doubt right-that if a helping hand is given to a homeless, then a path will lead to their door, and hoards of homeless will be there!
I say-"So?" I've worked many years in a couple of restaurants, and I know there was always something to feed someone; something left over, not to be used next day; still good, eatable, but tossed out in the garbage! Many a meal, bread, rolls-thrown away-needed by the hungry folk.
I know, what could be short piece for my Nibbles - Bits & Pieces; there was a time, I myself, lived mostly on left over hamburgers! But I'll save it for that day I decide to write it!
Strange how much we think of our little ones! I'd have died for my daughter; I'd have died for my son! And God, He made that rule of love: but- when you're old and grey, I've noticed it sometime, somehow fails to work the other way!
Epilogue:
Through this toilsome world, alas!
Once and only once I pass,
If a kindness I may show,
If a good deed I may do,
To a suffering, fellow man,
Let me do it while I can.
No delay, for it is plain
I may not pass this way again.
END
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