Second Chances

A girl about my age or younger was panhandling on the little island on Upper James at the Mohawk lights tonight. It is -11 now, and I don't know what it was three hours ago though. She was holding a cardboard sign that said "Broke and Hungry, anything helps."

She was walking up and down the island wearing a short winter coat, tight black jeans, a sweatshirt with a hood, and gloves. No make up that I could see, but it was about 6pm so quite dark.

She stopped at the van in front of me and received a pair of black winter gloves. She said thank you and gratefully shoved them into her pocket. My car was next, so I quickly rolled down my window and emptied my ashtray of all of its change.

I didn't know I had a loonie and toonie in there, let alone a bunch of quarters! She held out her hand and I put the money in her gloved palm. We smiled at eachother which was nice, and I told her to stay warm and good luck. She thanked me and quickly got out of the way as the light changed.

I waved to her as my window went up and I came home and ate my pizza.

I have to wonder where she is going to sleep. Again, it is -11 and I don't know if there was any body fat on her. I hope more people give her gloves and scarves and a hat!

One thing I have learned through being a nursing student is the fact that no one has the power. You can tell the people who think they do. They might say things all that person is going to do is spend that money on booze, or that person is faking their pain to get drugs.

It doesn't matter. I don't think anyone has the right to withhold things from people.

Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting people go out and start giving hundreds of dollars to winos on the streets... I just don't think we have the right to judge. We don't know why or how they ended up where they are do we?