ADULATION

A mother wept a bucket full of tears when 10-year old Kevin left. She used to always prepare peanut butter and jelly, his favorite, and tuck his lunch box to his bag. After school, she’s the one who greeted and walked with him back home. She read, taught and played with him most of the day.

He’s a delight to her. But Kevin had to go. He’s a son of a military whose duty station in California had come to an abrupt end. She was just their neighbor. Though, she spent time and cared for him more than her own. She said that people think she was exaggerating it. Some kids in his school called her Kevin’s Nanny. She said, “It isn’t exaggeration, it’s love.” She She started balling again.

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FRAILTY

I have cultivated a good relationship with my landlord. It’s not hard to because he’s a people person. He talks to anybody. He knows Ventura and it’s community. We see each other every time I pay my rent. One dinner, he told me his story. Whenever he does his morning walk and run. He usually passes by a house. Every time, he picks up the daily newspaper left on the lawn, and then he takes it all the way to the front door.
The owner of the house is a woman in her 90′s.

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RESUSCITATE

Ben and John live in the same apartment complex. They and their families spent the big holidays together last year. They become great friends for a couple of years now. There’s one incident that led up to this. John got fed up with Ben for his well being when they were forced to work together. John took the bull by his horns and opened a can of whoop ass to him. He berated and derided, laid out all his problems and irritation with him. It was hard for Ben to swallow everything in.

All the time, John remembers that moment and wished his face-to-face confrontation never happened. When they got reunited, Ben thanked John. He claimed that John made him a changed man. They now go to the gym and run together. John, he learned patience, to be calm and compromise through raising his kid who annoys him severely.

EMANCIPATION

Right now, he’s probably preparing the tables and chairs, or maybe fixing the bedroom. He used to live on a field, alone. He sells oranges at a Farmer’s Market, and that’s the only hours he spent talking to most people. He chose happiness and liberation, forgetting, leaving and shutting out every one he knew. One day, as he was only burning wood for light, he burnt his kindling house.

He then started to reconstruct another house. That next day, people who noticed his solitary life came to help him. More and more followed, and even donations were readily available to his soon to be doorstep. The house, which is much improved than the last, was rebuilt in just 10 days.

He still sells oranges at a Farmer’s Market. He is also a regular volunteer to a Rescue Mission serving homeless people. He does it as a return, a redemption, I supposed. He disagreed. He said he does it for what it is, his past didn’t matter. He said that he learned something the hard way. “No matter how much you sliced it, people need people.”

These are the stories of the people I know. Names are anonymous.

This post is part of my Special Reports.

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