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MistressOfGa -> RE: Pay it Forward (8/20/2006 11:29:28 AM)
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Fast Reply:
Years ago my sister got caught up in some very bad things with a very bad person. She ended up in Texas and through the grace of God, she did not end up dead. I was just a teenager, but I remember my family and strangers pulling together what little money they had to get her home and safe. She died a few years later, but I never forgot what family and strangers did to bring her home.
My brother was not a good person. He had done things to our family that just turned us all against him. The rest of my family had given up on him, myself included. He had hurt us so much with his lies and his treatment of us that it was very hard for anyone to forgive him. When he called me in Feb. 2001 and told me he was in a homeless shelter, injured and alone, my heart opened once again for him. My sister called me nuts for opening up to him again, I was already taking care of my mother at the time, but I went to him and when he was well enough, I took him home to live with me. I nursed him back to health (Or so I thought) and even gave him my old car to drive to try and find work. One night we were talking and he was telling me his story about how hard it was for him on the road with no money, no car to even sleep in and no one to help him. I cried with him when he told me of strangers who would give him money to live on while he made his way back to me. In September of 2001, he got really sick and ended up at the hospital coughing up blood. The doctor came out and asked if he had made any "end of life" arrangements. I said "I dont understand, what do you mean by that?" He put his hand on my shoulder and said "Didnt your brother tell you? He is dying of cancer". I could of fainted right then and there. No, my brother did not tell me. He told no one. He went to his chemo treatments without so much as a whisper as to where he was going. I was so angry because I saw it as selfish, he on the other hand saw it as a way to spend time with me in his final days without fear of me allowing him to stay with me out of pity. He died a few months later. But, I got the chance to get to know my brother and to hear his wonderful stories. I got the chance to heal the damage that had been done. I got the chance to love him.
Now, because of these two things, I am the first to roll down my window and give a homeless man/woman on the corner my change. Others may see that man on the corner as just a homeless guy. I see my beloved brother.
Pay it forward? I say Pay it backward.
Thank you for reading my long post.
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