Edmonton, Alberta. Sunday, May 26th, 2019
On a hot Sunday afternoon, I was driving around Southgate mall on the look for a homeless person for about an hour with almost no luck. So I made the decision to go to 97th, however, as I turned on to 111 street, there I found him - settled under a tree and a shopping cart filled with miscellaneous items.
I parked the car and walked towards him so I can ask him to join me for a meal. After some hesitations, he accepted my offer for a bite to eat. So then the 46 years old Shawn and I went to the food court in the mall to have our meal. We both ordered A&W, as it’s his favourite and we sat down only a couple of tables away from the place.
At first, silence seemed to be the theme of this meal as his answers were short to most of my questions. However, that changed when I asked him to tell me a story. His story(s) branched out into too many scattered events that were a bit hard to follow. The theme was mostly: that he had a tough childhood - always picked on because of his weight. “People and my brothers kept on making fun of me and no one gave a rat's ass about how did that make me feel. Drugs were my escape”. Shawn said.
We finished our meals and kept chatting for a while. He is excited about the summer and is hoping that he gets a job soon so he doesn’t have to stay in the shelter. I told him that I will keep an eye for him on jobs and a way to get in touch with him - if you know of any jobs let me know as well and I will let him know. We decided to wrap it up and go our separate ways. So we walked back to his cart and we wished each other’s a good evening.
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