A year ago, I was in a bad place. There wasn't a lot of work coming in and for various reasons my clients weren't paying me in a timely manner which was really affecting me financially. I was having to turn to Jeff and my sister to help me pay the bills, and I just hated that so I wasn't asking them for much.
One evening, right at dusk, I went to the store for something and noticed a drifter standing at the intersection. He wore a long coat and a hat pulled down low over his eyes. When I headed for home, he was still there, so I dug five dollar bills out of my wallet and when I got to the stoplight, I rolled my window down and held out the money. He reached out with a severely burned, disfigured hand and took the money. I looked at his face and it too was terribly burned. I smiled and mumbled awkwardly that that was all I had. Then I wished him "Happy Holidays." He wished me the same. As I drove away, I was SO MAD at myself! First of all, I had lied to him. That wasn't all the money I had. There were still two more dollars in my wallet. And I thought "Why on earth did I wish him Happy Holidays? He is most likely homeless and it's obvious that the world has not been kind to him. How will he have happy holidays?"
When I got back to my house, I called my sister Barbie and told her about him. I couldn't get him out of my mind. She said to go back and talk to him, that maybe he needed something. I explained that I didn't have the money to buy him anything and she said "Well, find out what he needs, put it on your credit card and I'll pay the bill." So, back I went to the intersection. He was JUST walking away so I hurriedly parked my car, ran up to him and out of breath I said "I haven't stopped thinking about you since I saw you earlier. Is there anything you need or anything I can get for you?" He stopped walking and looked me right in the eyes with a strange look on his disfigured face. It was as if he were thinking "This woman is crazy!" Then he said "I could use some new shoes." I pointed him in the direction of a shoe store across the parking lot and said I'd meet him there. I told him my name was Donna and asked him his name. He told me, but I couldn't understand what he said. I asked again and I still didn't understand. Then he said "I could use some new socks and a blanket too."
Great! Yea! I told him I'd run to buy the socks and blanket and meet him at the shoe store. When I got to the shoe store, he was still making his way across the parking lot. He called out to me "I'm almost there, Donna." No problem. I'd wait. It was interesting that he remembered my name and seemed to be rather out-going.
We walked into the shoe store together and I asked the salesgirls to point us in the right direction. Their mouths were gaping open a bit. I asked what he wanted for his feet and he said "Something cheap" to which I answered "no," that we weren't worrying about the money, we were going to get what he needed. He picked some ankle high walking boots, found his size and was going to just get them without trying them on. I told him that I thought he'd better try them on, just in case. He said he was embarrassed because his feet would stink and he wasn't wearing socks, but I said that didn't matter to me.
He sat down, I opened the package of socks and handed him one of the socks. He was trying and trying to get that sock on his foot, but on one hand he had no fingers, and on the other hand, he was missing a few fingers. Rather than watch him struggle, I knelt down and put the socks on his feet. He sighed at the feeling of those new, warm, clean socks and then told me how good they felt. Still sitting on the floor, I put the boots on his feet and tied the laces. He said they felt really good. We chit-chatted and laughed a bit.
I asked him a few random questions. He told me that he was from Virginia and that he was headed back there to see his family. He said he hadn't seen them in 25 years and said, "I think it's about time I go home!" I asked a few more questions but he gave me very vague answers, not wanting me to get too personal. There was so much I was curious about. I wanted to know how and when he'd been so badly burned. I wanted to know what he'd been doing all these years. I looked into his eyes...he had beautiful blue eyes...and I wondered what he looked like before he had been burned. I wondered if he'd held jobs over the years and what his life would have been like if he didn't look like such a monster.
I paid for the boots and when the girl gave me the sales slip, he asked to see it. He picked up a pen and started writing. When he was done, he handed it to me and on it he had written his name "Crow Yarrington." No WONDER I couldn't understand what he was saying. I've never heard of someone being named Crow before! I gave him a hug, I asked if he was going to be okay. He said he would be. Then he walked out the door carrying his blanket and socks and wearing his new boots.
I wish I had done more. I wish I had reserved him a hotel room so that he could have taken a bath and slept in a bed that night. I wish I'd gotten him some new warmer clothes to wear. I look at his signature and I see an artist there. A creative soul. He dots his "I" with a circle!
The girls at the shoe store told me that they'd seen him at the intersection a few other times, but he was never there again after that night. The days following, I looked for him but never saw him. I wondered if the gift of the shoes had given him some strength to continue on his journey. Did he make it to Virginia? I worried about him when we had that horrible ice storm in January and I hoped that he'd gotten out of the Midwest. Hoped that he'd found some shelter somewhere.
I think about Crow Yarrington quite often and I know that, because of my sister who has such a loving heart, I did help him, but there was so much more I could have done. I wish I had been thinking farther beyond my little financial problems and realized that I COULD have gotten him some new clothes, I COULD have reserved him a hotel room, I COULD have taken him to eat a nice hot meal somewhere. I hope he remembers me and thinks that I was nice to him, even if I didn't do as much as I could have. The next opportunity I have to do something like that again, I will do more.
Donna, thank you for sharing this. I KNOW it touched me, and I am sharing THIS with my children. You are a GEM and so is your sister!!!!!
I am posting TOMORROW- about my decision about the Rolodex Class Instructions, etc. I have to get myself to the gym. I did BODY PUMP yesterday and I'm pretty sore. Thankfully, just doing 60 minutes of cardio curcuit today.... much love Teresa
