Well an interesting thing happened...a month or so ago when it was still summer and hot and sweaty during the day, P and L were on a grocery run, their normal Sunday doughnut and Times trip, when she pointed out a small family of four perched on a curb. Two parents and two kids (a boy about four and a baby about eight months) and a terrible hand-lettered sign on cardboard, something about needing to get to New York where there was a job waiting. At the time she put out her hand and offered a dollar, and the father took her hand in return and kissed it. They had a great conversation on the way home about giving and sharing and how the family needed it more than we do, and how it was good of her to notice.
Later that day after much conversation and mental hand-wringing, we decide to see if there was anything else we could do. I did a drive-by on the way to do some work at the office - still there perched on the corner. I made a few calls to local shelters to see if there was any space with no luck. We considered talking to our neighbor the farmer who employs itinerant workers, but put that on hold for the time being. We talked about the sauna for temporary housing if it came to that. P brushed up on his Spanish real quick, after we grabbed Paul G and his van, and a bag of snacks and water. The kid looked especially relieved at the sight of a juice box.
The story was that they needed $30 to buy their share of a hotel room for the night and then would head off in their minivan with his brother and family, a total of nine people, to a farm job in New York. P wagged his finger and said ¿me estás diciendo la verdad? and of course the dad said yes. So anyway, we gave them two twenties and felt pretty pleased with ourselves. While we certainly have people around here with signs asking for help on curbs, they are typically single men in army jackets, rather than families with little ones.
Yesterday we saw them again, this time on a different corner. As we drove by, P wagged his finger again and said it was lucky that I was in the car or he would have gotten out and offered a few words, like grifter and you give the people who really need it a bad name....they didn't seem to recognize us in those few seconds, but who knows. But I didn't feel bad about seeing them at all. I figure that they are still on a corner, without a home, and two little kids...isn't that their choice if they want to do that? I wouldn't change our original choice to give them some money, because we could do so and we wanted to. The fact that they lied - is unfortunate. It is also pretty lame that they are carting their kids around like that. But I won't claim to know what their lives are about based on the fact that they were untruthful. I have more than enough. I can spare it.
I guess all in all I am pretty at peace with the whole thing. What do you think?
