How My Daughter is Changing the World One Life at a Time
My daughter will be 20 this summer.
Crazy. How fast the time goes.
She came home from work the other day and told me about a new homeless man she met. His name is Axel.
She stopped at the intersection where she knows the local homeless hang out. She stops almost every time she passes it to offer whomever is there something to eat or drink.
She also likes to put together care packages. Containers filled with toothpaste and a toothbrush, water, shelf-stable food, soap, and other little things that are useful that they don’t often have.
She also likes to include a small luxury because she knows they don’t get to enjoy things very often.
Their lives are hard and uncomfortable.
She enjoys being able to gift them a small measure of comfort.
She works at a Starbucks. She will get a protein pack or a pastry from work and give it to one of her homeless friends.
She has taken the time and made the effort to learn their names and faces. She knows when they tend to be at the intersection. They leave at dusk. She makes sure to arrive before they leave.
She saw Axel and knew that he was a new face. She gave him a care package because she had never seen him before. It cost her $12. She shrugged when she told me this.
To her, $12 is nothing. To him, it was an enormous kindness from a stranger.
She recognized this, but wants no recognition for herself.
She mentions how there are enough people in the community that she needs to make a list on paper so the information isn’t just floating around in her head.
She wants to take the list to the community and have the people tell her things that they need and want so she can prioritize and help get them the things they need.
I agree with her that it’s a good idea. And that I’m so proud of her for making such a difference.
She tells me that since Starbucks donates all the food that’s getting ready to expire and allows employees to go through and take home any food they want before the rest goes to donation, she is going to start collecting a bag of food for the homeless community each week.
Again, I tell her that’s a wonderful idea.
My husband, her dad, has been listening to the conversation and smiling. He’s so proud.
He tells her that for his birthday at the end of the month, he’d like her to take him to this community. He’ll take his smoker up there and do some barbeque.
She loves this idea.
I love my family.
I am so proud of my daughter I could burst.
She is 19 years old. She’s always been mature for her age. She’s always had a heart of gold.
Her life has not always been easy. She’s been through some really tough shit.
But she loves people.
She is KIND.
At the end of March, she and her dad will go serve barbeque to the homeless community she knows.
And I could not be any more proud.
Note: I may go with them to serve food but I have a medical condition which prevents me from doing a lot of things. It will depend on how I’m feeling that day and if it is safe for me to try. I just wanted to make that clear, so it didn’t sound like I was disinterested. :) Thanks for reading!
