On Tuesday, I had just walked out the door to go pick up Katie and was looking down the street for my garbage can, which was windswept away.

As I walked up the driveway, I noticed an older man walking very slowly up our street, approaching our house. He was pushing/pulling a small buggy, with his groceries in it.

He called out to me, as he approached and asked me where 6818 was. I told him that he was real close and it was a few doors up, on the other side of the street.

Then he said, "No, no....not 6818, it's 6518 I have to get to".  I then said, that he was nowhere near that address, as it was well below Battleford Rd. 

I told him that he had to walk back in the other direction. I said that I was in a hurry to go pick up my daughter and couldn't keep the daycare sitter waiting.

The look on his face was one of worry and helplessness.  He started pulling papers out of his pocket and telling me that his son lived at 6518 and that he was just staying with him.

I asked if there was anyone home and he said no.Then he told me that he was a diabetic, as he chewed a bit more on the apple he was carrying. 

My mood changed immediately, from, in a hurry to concern for this man. I raced inside the house, grabbed my cellphone and called the daycare, telling her that I had something important to do and that I would be late. Then I put the man's buggy in the trunk, helped him inside the car and drove him to his son's house.

Along the way, he told me that he was in the country for only 4 months and was now living with his son because there was nobody left in England, where he came from, to care for him. I think he mentioned that his wife had passed away. He also said that he used to be a fighter pilot in the RAF, in his younger days.  

I helped the man up his driveway, carried his buggy down the steep basement stairs to his basement apartment in his son's house, then walked back up the stairs and helped the man down and into his room.

I asked if he was okay, if he had enough sugar and if there was anything else I could do for him. He thanked me a million times, offered me money, beer, food......Naturally, I turned it all down and said that my heart was warmed, by helping him out.  

Had I not gone to chase down my garbage can, I would've missed this man, who was in dire need. I'm not sure that he would've made it back down the street, had nobody been there to help him.

I raced back up Edenwood and went to get Katie, feeling real good about the deed I had done.

strato-samaritan