Old Friend

 Well Mary, your post about homeless people asking you for change reminded me of an old memory that was too long for a comment. So here’s a post about it. 

This happened more than 20 years ago, because I know it was before my daughter was born. I was about to walk into Einstein bagels on Montrose Blvd in Houston. I had a $10gift card. A homeless woman asked me if I had any change. I said no and then literally said, “I have no money” which for me at the time, meant, I’m not carrying cash and I was also using a gift card. Back then, stuff was a lot cheaper and I didn’t know that you didn’t have to spend the whole gift card in one trip to get the full value. So I got two bagels and a bunch of snacks. This is also how you know this was an extremely long time ago. All that for $10!  

As I was walking out with my bag, this same woman started accosting me  “yeah right! You have no money but you got all of that!”  I kind of felt bad for her so I just gave her one of the two toasted bagels.  Then I remembered I had some loose change in my cup holder  I offered it to her, and she said no, and she was very happy with the bagel  

Several months later I saw her again at the nearby Walgreens.  She approached me and asked if I had any change.  I said no, but asked her what she needed. I can’t remember what else she said but she wanted rubbing alcohol to clean her skin.   We chatted a while and she was cool.  

The third time I saw her was even more months later.  This time, it was pouring rain and it was outside of Walgreens again.  I said, “oh hey!  I have not seen you for a while!”  I could tell she didn’t recognize me, but still wanted to use the fact that I remembered her to ask for something.  She told me, “Well I got my own place now”.  I congratulated her and asked where.  She told me.  It was about 3-4 miles away and due to the rain that was just starting, she asked if she could have a ride back  

In the car, she explained that she was able to get the apartment due to an organization in Houston that helped people with HIV/AIDS.  When I dropped her off, I didn’t go in, but I did wait in my car until she walked in.  She had three or four plants on her balcony.

That was the last time I saw her.  When I told my mother about it, my mother went and got her Clorox wipes and made me wipe down the passenger seat of my car.  She still had the 1980’s misconceptions about HIV-AIDS