Edmonton, Alberta. Sunday March 11th, 2012 - Outside temperature: -12° C.
Mark was just outside the Kingsway mall, sitting on the sidewalk with his head down. I asked him if he would like to have lunch with me instead of giving him money, and he agreed. We head inside a crowded food court and we stand on Subway's line-up. We get our sandwiches and we pick an empty table on the far south east corner.
He was very hungry to the point finished his one-foot sandwich very quickly - literally less than 3 minutes. So I asked him when was the last time he ate, and he said: it was yesterday at lunch time, he picked up something from a Chinese restaurant's dumpster (can't mention the name). I offered to get him another sandwich but he said he had enough.
We started talking about the weather, living in Edmonton, his family, my family, and his occupation. The conversation was like a roller coaster, had its ups and downs. I will just mention the ups: his son goes to Lethbridge University majoring in political science. He is very proud of him and what he is able to accomplished. He envisioned him as the person who is going to fix all problems in the broken systems nowadays. Another up was that he expecting a cheque of $2,000 coming in on March 28th for a construction work he did last week.
At the end of the sitting, I ask him my favorite question: If you had three wishes, what would they be? He said: “Good future for my son, a stead job I can earn money from, and a meal every day”. He appreciated the company for lunch, we shook hands, and we wished each others a good day.
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Disclaimer: This picture is from google.
