On Wednesday I was heading to the comic shop when I saw this lady staring at me. It wasn't a hard evil stare but it was the 'I think I've seen you before' look. I took a couple of glances at the woman and noticed she was on hard times. She had older, torn clothes and teeth confirming she was a user of hard drugs. I guess it was the glancing/staring that got me thinking about something just before she approached me. I knew this woman needed help and I was going to help her.

In the span of 45 minutes I got to learn a lot about this woman. She was a lot younger than me, only 33 years old, but she had 3 kids with one of them getting ready to graduate from high school. She was recently homeless, with her man using the money they got from a tattoo shop they owned for drugs. He was arrested, so she was kicked out of her apartment and the shop was shut down for three months rent owed. On top of everything else, her birthday was a day away.

I have to admit I felt sorry for her. When I heard a little of her story and that it was her birthday the next day, I got the good nature vibe inside me. She was heading on the bus near to the location I was going, so I offered to get lunch for her. Man, did that cause the waterworks to flow.

I'm not sure why I was being so helpful that day. It was an interesting lunch, listening to her story. What was really eye opening was there was a church group in the pizza place we were at. They were talking about the good book, about how those not with the word would go to hell, and all that stuff. I found it amusing about how they talked about helping people, things they wanted to do to help folks, and here I was feeding and talking to someone who needed help. I don't know, I'm always suspicious of religious types that talk a good game but don't back up their actions. The group was all talking about the help they would give and how it would benefit them instead of just helping someone because its the right thing to do.

It was an interesting set of circumstances I went through that day and it was a strange learning day.