When my daughter was five or six she found out about homeless people. She literally couldn’t believe it. She immediately went out in front of our rental property and dug out a hole. She left a loving note with some snacks and a blanket and said everybody is welcome here.
When she was seven she gave part of her Christmas money to the new homeless shelter Hospitality House and to the founder Utah Phillips, American songwriter storyteller and poet. We got our picture in the paper with Utah.
Then we began making up little bags. She would write loving notes and we would put a little bit of money in them. We would pass them off to homeless people when we saw them. Then we got loving notes that would say things like you’re amazing, we deeply appreciate you, you’re doing a fabulous job. We would pass them out to anybody who had added to the blessing of our day with joy laughter or even just a smile. Sometimes we would just give them to people who seem to need a blessing.
I’m guessing my daughter would be about 12 when her grandmother died. I needed to be near water so I went to a local creek and we found out there was a homeless camp there. Two homeless men came up to us and noticed our sadness. When they asked what was going on, I told them. They are both so incredibly kind. One of them had created a cairn memorial to homelessness in the creek and it was extraordinarily beautiful. The other asked if we would like him to create a painting to support us in our sadness at the death of my mother-in-law.
So we bought him some paint brushes and canvases. The image below is the one he created for me and maybe later I’ll add the one he created for my daughter. We continue to visit him weekly until the camp was broken up. Then we’d see him occasionally playing drums on the street to raise money for himself.
At some point she designed a shelter for orphans and old people. It was called helping hands. She designed the logo. I saw my daughter tonight and she corrected me on the story which I had remembered differently. When she found out that often for children that are adopted in Guatemala the cause is because the mothers don’t feel able to take care of their children. She is adopted from Guatemala. So her idea was to build a home for the mothers and children to stay together. When the mothers had to go to work the children would slide down the pole like a Firemans pole down to the first floor where the older people would live, people who were alone and lonely, elderly people. The elderly people would take care of the children. Everybody was happy and felt loved and supported. My daughter is Guatemalan and we talked about trying to move down to Guatemala and find funding for her idea. Who knows maybe one day we will.
We also prepared and served the food at the shelter a few times. One time there was a family with children at the homeless shelter. I’m imagining it was quite an education for my daughter.
My daughter is now 21 and portrays her self as very tough. She left my home when she turned 19 and for a time was living with my former husband’s new family. Yet she had the courage to leave that very posh situation (swimming pool, all expenses covered, given money daily for incidentals) after a few incidents where her integrity was deeply questioned. She moved with her partner into a trailer despite it being very difficult financially. So much so that I requested that she come anytime she was hungry. Her partner lost both legs at the age of four. He’s not currently working and she’s working six days a week. So I was incredibly touched when I heard the other day that despite their huge financial challenges, despite the fact that sometimes previously, they themselves have not had enough to eat, they carry snacks and bottles of water in the car. I’m crying as I’m writing this. They still stop and support homeless people when they see them, offering them a snack or water or both. This touches me very very deeply.
