When you head out into the world, there’s no telling who you might encounter. If you keep your head down and your face in a frown, you probably won’t interact with a lot of people. However, if you’re warm and smiling and receptive to the people you meet, you never know who you might connect with — and sometimes, that connection is more meaningful than you bargained for. When a young mother went out to grab a coffee at Dunkin Donuts, she noticed a homeless man looking for change on the ground. After he entered the shop with her, she couldn’t help but strike up conversation, a gesture that would ultimately lead to something there’s no way she could have planned for. Read her story and his below, and let it act as a solemn reminder that sometimes, you’re exactly what someone needs — even if you don’t know they need it.Casey isn’t just a mother — she’s a student who is trying to make a better life for herself and her child.
She saw a homeless man picking up change on the side of the road — not objectively unusual, but something she hadn’t spotted before.
And what happened next was completely life-changing.
“Eventually I saw him stroll into Dunkin, as he was counting his change to buy something,” she said.
“I began to get super annoying and talked to him over and over again even when he didn’t really want to talk.”
She asked him to sit with her, and shockingly, he agreed.
“He told me a lot about how people are usually very mean to him because he’s homeless, how drugs turned him into the person he hated,” Casey explained.
“He said he lost his mom to cancer, he never knew his dad and he just wants to be someone his mom would be proud of (along with another hours worth of conversation.)”
“After realizing I really need to get back to class ,Chris asked me to wait so he can write something down for me. Handing me a crumpled up receipt he apologized for having shaky hand writing, smiled, and left.”
When Casey opened the note, she read: “I wanted to kill myself today, because of u I now do not. Thank u, beautiful person.” And to think, all of this occurred because Casey reached out to someone she didn’t even know was in this much pain. It’s enough to inspire us to reach out to people who look like they could use an ear — and ultimately, a friend.
