60 Minutes at the Canal

She was walking down the street that she walked daily when she approached a bridge that arched over the canal. Up ahead was a homeless man who she had already seen around town, a gruff man who is old and had mean qualities. To some perhaps this man was scary to approach. The homeless man had no legs and sat in a wheelchair that was old, broken, and falling apart. Squeezed behind his back is his bottle of wine that he would surely drink at night. The man had a habit of yelling at people as they walked by, a typical display from an alcoholic homeless man.

On accident, the woman looked ahead at the bridge and noticed the legless man in the wheel chair. Immediately their eyes lock - the sight at first startled the woman and she looked towards the ground in shame. As she walks by, the sun is shining down, the breeze is perfectly cool, and the sounds of birds chirp. After passing the man in the wheelchair, he barks behind her, "fuck off cunt".

She kept walking ignoring his words. As she reached the other side of the bridge she turned around to take one last look at the canal and admire the sun. She again saw the man in the wheelchair from the distance. He was staring out at the water as if dreaming of a better time.

The woman felt a surge of empathy and ran home which was not so far from the bridge. While there - she gathered things she thought would make the man happy. Some juice drinks, some water, and a spliff. With a sense of urgency, she ran back to the homeless soul sitting in his wheel chair staring off into the distance of the canal.

"I've brought you these" she shows the man the drinks. "I don't want them - get away" he said wanting nothing to do with the woman. She insisted to take the drinks and brought out the spliff. He immediately becomes more calm and begins to talk about a time far in his past when liberals would smoke weed and life was good. As he began to reminisce, he began to become teary eyed.

"Now this is my life. I have no legs. That time has past" the man in the wheelchair would go on to tell his story. "I lost my legs due to cigarettes - and my fingers are now even numb. I still smoke because I've lost everything, why stop?". As he began to become more docile, the woman began to feel empathy in a way she never had before. "How about I push you to the canal?" She asks the man, pointing to the beautiful canal under them filled with ducks and green. He agrees.

As they walk and roll side by side, the man talks more of his past life - a harpist, a marine, a singer, a father of twin daughters and a son. He explains how he no longer is in communication with his family. It breaks the woman's heart as she continues to hear these things.

Approaching the canal they sit side by side, him in his wheel chair while she sat on the bench. He continues to share with the woman his deepest torments the woman realizing this man smells and nobody would ever dare to approach him. Ignoring the truth, the woman listens to his story closely feeling the deepest amount of sorrow.

"When you are in my situation, you question the point of living. I have no home, I share a room with people I don't know surrounded by drugs and alcohol." His eyes begin to tear up again as he talks deep from his sole, reflecting on the mistakes he made in the past to be where he is now. "I'm 64, I want a family, but nobody will be with me" he cries, staring deeply into the canal.

The woman stared at him with tears in her eyes, she had nothing she could possibly say because she knew he was right. This caused a deep reaction to happen within the woman's soul, making her question everything and feeling helpless for the man. The man's reaking dirty clothes stained the air with smell of stink and alcohol as they sat there together in silence, bathing in the sun and staring into the canal.

The woman looked at her phone and noticed nearly an hour had past since she left the house with the goods for the homeless man. As she had to leave, the man grabs her hand and tells her, "you have made me want to keep on living, that there are good people in the world". Speechless she grabs her hand back, after all this was a homeless man touching her. "All right let me roll you back to the bridge" she said and began pushing him back up to the bridge.

She waved him goodbye and walked home. The sense of hopelessness consumed her as she thought of the homeless old man in the wheel chair. She thought of her bitter lonely alcoholic dad, she thought of her homeless alcohol brother, and cried for hours following their interaction. She did not have pity for the homeless man nor any doubt his wrong choices put him in his current situation, rather she had pity for the man staring sadly at the canal, with his old soul yearning to leave that trapped lonely body. She had for the first time really questioned the purpose of being alive, wondering how she will handle being old and yearning for the past.

From that day on the woman crossing the bridge would live her life with as much love as possible, being grateful for what she had.