He was pushing his wife Betty down Harding Place near Interstate 24 around 9:00 at night. I asked, “Where are you going?” Johnny quietly replied, “McDonalds.”
If you were to look into the lives of those on the street you would often find a life of minor criminal offenses, drug use, signs of alcohol abuse and more. If you only glanced over the surface one might come to the conclusion, “He or she is a bad person.” However, you have to look deeper than the surface to understand that most on the street had a life of tragedy that most of us would not understand. For many, those tragedies and traumas started in their childhood and one traumatic event after the other continued into their adult lives – all events untreated by professional help.
As for Johnny and Betty, they have been married for the past 17 years. They have been each other’s rock throughout those years and have helped each other in many ways.
Last night when I saw the two, Johnny had just dropped off Betty’s prescription for insulin, she is a diabetic. He told me, “I will pick it up tomorrow – it will only be $18 because we have insurance with only a small co-pay.” He then leaned over to me and whispered as if afraid to say it out loud, “She also has breast cancer.”
The two live in a small tent and Johnny showed me a heater they just received from a friend who is part of Open Table Nashville. “See, it attaches to propane tanks and it keeps us warm at night,” he told me while describing how it works. I smiled and asked, “You need some extra propane to stay warm?”
My friend Joel Vernon and I then headed to Walmart and bought six tanks of propane for the two. When we returned and met them at McDonalds, they were full of joy. The smiles cost the us $24, but will keep them warm for six nights. Little Things.
"Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindness, and small obligations given habitually, are what preserve the heart and secure comfort." - Humphry Davy (1778-1829), Cornish chemist and inventor
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