SUSIE COMMENTS ABOUT HER FRIEND

Greetings -
Susie sent the piece shown below to me today via
e-mail.  She gave her permission to post what she
e-mails me (unless otherwise stated by her).   As a former resident in the homeless shelter environment, Susie's account has deep meaning for me.  So much is misunderstood about the homeless population.  One day I will write a piece about it.    

SUSIE'S COMMENTS:

The article about the homeless guy and the credit card was touching. I had a homeless friend on Pacific Coast Highway in California before I moved here in January of 2009. Her name was Melody. I met her about a year before I moved here when me and a friend stopped at a gas station to get some water and a snack. She was a fairly thin black woman and she could'nt have been older than her late thirties. She didn't drink or do drugs, and every time I came to visit her she never asked for anything. I would sit down with her on the sidewalk while she fed the pigeons and she would always ask how I was doing. I had asked her once why she didn't stay in a shelter, and she told me they only let people stay in them for two weeks. They didn't allow homeless people to bring their belongings, and she didn't want to risk losing them so she lived on the sidewalk during the day and slept inside a fenced business at night. What was remarkable about her, was that she treated it as if a friend were visiting her in her home, and she seemed to enjoy the girl time. She would get all excited when I came to see her, and offered me snacks and stuff. But she never asked me for anything. I had to ask her if there was anything she needed or wanted, or if she wanted to use my cell phone to call anyone. She never wanted anything. She didn't talk much about herself or her life, but there was a sadness about her. She had mentioned a son who was a young adult, but when I showed interest in hearing about him, she just got quiet and looked sad. She did show me an old picture of him. She mostly wanted to hear about me and what was going on in my life, and she would laugh real hard when I would tell her about my daily faux pas and mistakes. I noticed while I'd visit her, that a constant stream of random people would run up to her and give her sodas and snacks, and one time a worker at the restaraunt across the street on the beach ran across and hand her a complete meal. She told me they did it everyday. People were constantly looking out for her. I asked her if the police ever gave her trouble, and she said yes, that she had to move when they asked her to. I once put my hand on her and prayed for her, asking God to make her invisible to the police, and she started laughing when I prayed that. She was really amused by me. She had a Bible that she read and she would let me pray with her. But you know, Sandra, it was weird... her concern was always for me, and she was always giving me advice and tips and encouragement as if I was the needier one. I told her one day- I was going to have surgery, that I never had surgery before, and she spent quite some time trying to alleviate my anxieties about it. When I told her I would be moving to Kansas soon, she asked me to come and say goobye to her before I left. I never was able to. And I miss her. When I get a chance to go to California and visit, I want to go see her. Melody was not a typical homeless person. She was always giving and never asking. People took care of her, and everyone seemed to love her. Even patrons of the gas station took time to come and say hello to her while their gas tanks were filling. She never wanted to talk about her own life or her problems. Anyhow... I just really miss her and feel bad that I didn't get to come to the beach and say good bye to her. I just thought I'd mention her since you sent me that article about a woman giving her credit card to a homeless guy. I always tell friends to stop by and visit her for me.