There are some people that end up here and we never get the whole picture of what landed them to our doors. You find them interesting by their vocabulary. You end up asking yourself, what happened to this person’s life that got them to become homeless? These are the same people you fall in love with and no matter how bad their life skills are going and even when they get to the point of just maybe needing a nursing home but you never get them there because you know they will fall deeper and deeper and die faster. So you just end up taking care of them as if they were family.
My friend James was a man like the above. As he got older and his illness got worse he would sometimes stop me and say, “Robert it is a shame they killed your brother Jack like they did, he was a good president.” I became Robert Kennedy to him. I did not find out why until I spoke to his son. James was a big time Kennedy Assassination expert. He even was asked by Larry Flint to write a story about the conspiracy. He even came to south Florida to interview for the Cuban Connection to the Presidents death. Wow, this man- a homeless man was more than met the eyes.
After working 7 days a week most of the time of about 18 to 20 hours a day for over 17 years I have seen many families that did not ever want to be a part of their loved ones life. Only a handful have come to their funeral services and even some would say, why are you calling me to tell me my son has died? I don’t really care. However when it came to James, his family stayed in touch with us over the years. I was James health care surrogate; this meant I made the choices for James on any medical treatment. However I stilled stayed in touch with his son to let him know the condition of his dad and told him my game plan.
James was very proud of his son who served in the Coast Guard and often he would brag and say things that a proud parent would say about their children who served and it was always nice to hear James say those comments.
James was a flirt and no matter how much he aged, he always wanted a pretty girl by his side. He would continue to sneak his sugar each and every day and yes we had to make that famous page over the PA system when James got up from his frequent naps saying, “Time for Mr. Dessert to go Home.” The staff knew James was up and it was time to hide the muffins, cake and pie that we left down stairs most of the day for our clients to enjoy.
Our dear friend James died in mid November. Many of the people who loved him came up to the office crying after I made the page over the PA system asking for the others to say some prayers for his soul. I ended the announcement with a prayer asking God to forgive James for his sins.
When most of the world thinks homeless people are bums I am here to say, how could that be true? They are just people like the rest of us who have some issues like the rest of us. They cry, they take care of others, they mourn and they love. James was someone, and the people who mourned his death are somebody as well and they are not bums. I’ll go one step further, these same homeless people would go and visit James when he was in the hospital just to talk to him and give him some hope and prayers.
James you are in Heaven now and you finally found out who killed Kennedy. God Bless you and keep an eye on us from above.
Love Sean