The man outside of Starbucks

I met an old friend at a Starbucks downtown. We sat inside, drank our coffee and reconnected. As we ended our chat, exited the coffee shop and said our goodbyes, I turned and saw a man sitting on a bench. He was thin, graying at the temples, had an infectious smile and held a simple cardboard sign “ I am homeless and have diabetes, please help”. He was panhandling for change in front of Starbucks.

When I saw his sign, I understood. My wife is a diabetic, dependent on her injections of insulin to help her live. She worries about what the disease is doing to her body and if there will ever be a cure. I am sure this man had all the same concerns alone with the more immediate one of finding a meal and place to sleep.

I dug into my pocket and pull all the change I had and dropped it into his cup. I asked the man about his disease and how he was doing. His response caught me off guard. “I’m doing great!” “I got me some medicine, my Social Security Disability got approved . I got me a case worker and we are looking for a place of my own” His smile and hope for the future were infectious and I introduced myself.

I found out Melvin was a bus driver and lost his job due to diabetes. He got depressed, started drinking and began the decline. I’m not sure how it happened but he somehow turned himself around. He found a treatment program at Ohio State University and got healthy. He now knows how to manage his disease. In the process he filed for Disability and struggled on his own.

We chatted about living in the 14th Street shelter and how he was looking for a home. Goodwill is offering living assistance for 3 months and by then he will be receiving regular checks. I mentioned a 1 bedroom we had open and Melvin wanted to see it.

In the end, my partner and I worked with Goodwill and Melvin so he could move into his own home. We loaned him a few dollars for the down payment on a bedroom set from Value City and he moved in on the 1st.

Handing the keys to Melvin was heartwarming and reminded me why I wanted to try to make a difference. He told me how excited he was to be able to cook his own food – what he wanted to eat, and to have some privacy once in a while. The entire time we spent together he was grinning from ear to ear and it wasn’t hard to be infected with his smile.