Today, while purchasing a cup of coffee at the TLC Inconvenience Store, I ran into a former TLC resident who owed me $10 I'd loaned to him a few weeks ago. And when I gave it to him he said he’d pay me back a few days later.
Of course I didn't expect to see the ten anytime soon as I knew he needed money for a bottle of vodka. And I was happy to accommodate him.
I was taught by my first sponsor, Dean W. to give panhandlers money. He said it was okay if they used it for alcohol because they might hit the bottom faster. So today I follow his advice.
Anyway, it was sad to see this fellow to whom I'd loaned the ten. And actually I smelled him before I saw him walk up beside me.
He stunk of urine, sweat, and alcohol. His clothes were dirty grease rags, as if he'd been sleeping in them since I last saw him a few weeks ago. His hair was a filthy tangle, His eyes glassy and unfocused, But he still remembered he owed me the money
"I'm going to get that money back to you," he told me, all serious. And I said okay. Then I told him that the offer was still open for him to come into the halfway house. He said that he was just about ready to get sober, that he was "tired." And he left the store and walked unsteadily toward the street.
While I'm wrong as often as I'm right, my gut feeling is that this man doesn't have long to live if he doesn't change his lifestyle. And it was sad to see him because earlier this year I had a similar conversation with another fellow who kept drinking.
And he was found dead a few weeks later, somewhere in Phoenix. We only learned that he’d died after the police came to ask us if we knew of any next of kin.
