Public service

On Saturday evening while H and I were preparing dinner, Colin's wife L called because she needed some help and Colin's phone was off. She had been walking to the grocery store, listening to her iPod, when she made eye contact with a man sitting on the curb at a busy intersection. He seemed to be speaking to her, so she removed her ear phones and realized that he was asking for help. He said that he was not feeling well, that he could not stand up, and that he needed to go to the hospital. He also related with shame that he had also suffered a bout of incontinence while there on the curb. To L he kept saying, "This has never happened before."

L did not know exactly what to do. Colin's phone was off, and L did not have a car to take him to the hospital. She called me to see if I was around to help. When she described the man I recognized that it was probably JJ. She asked the man his name and confirmed my guess. The first thing that went through my mind was, "Oh boy. This is not going to go smoothly." JJ is a local, but does not come to breakfast at the church. He often sits on the steps to the street at the back of the property and drinks. When he drinks he is prone to be verbally aggressive and belligerent.

I told L that I would drive up to see if I could help as soon as we finished dinner. I've learned that one of compromises that I must make when responding to the poor is that sitting down to dinner with my wife takes priority - if I am not to become homeless myself. I told L that I would be there in about twenty minutes and that there was no need for her to stay with JJ. Somehow this was miscommunicated and L waited with JJ until I got there (with Colin). In the meantime, since JJ was hungry L went into the grocery store and bought some hand sanitizer and some chicken. JJ proceeded to eat the chicken with his soiled hands. After eating he proceeded to apply hand sanitizer liberally to his arm and pants leg.

I went by Colin's place and picked him up. Neither of us had the good sense to bring towels which would have been handy both because it was raining and because of JJ's unfortunate accident. So when we pulled up to the intersection Colin got out to relieve L and I went over to the church to pick up something for JJ to dry off with and sit on. Colin, having once been an EMT thought to get some plastic gloves.

We walked over to JJ who was still sitting on the curb of the sidewalk, partially obscured by the fir tree growing out of the landscaped garden behind him. It was 6:30pm on Saturday. The intersection was very busy. People were walking and jogging by on the sidewalk.

The drizzling rain had soaked JJ's pants. Down his leg ran a ribbon of brown, soaking into his sock, and dripping onto the sidewalk, which had now taken a brownish hue in JJ's vicinity. His left hand was obviously covered with feces, but his right seemed relatively unsoiled. I shook his hand and reminded him of my name. There was a flicker of recognition in his eyes, but it was clear that he did not remember much.

He repeated several times that he was feeling bad and needed help. We said that we'd help him out. Colin told him we'd give him a ride to the hospital and asked if he could walk to the car. JJ said that he might be able to with some help. Colin started to put on the gloves. I looked over and tried to control myself when I realized that they were not latex medical gloves, but rather the plastic gloves that you see food service workers wearing. I wanted to ask "Are we taking him to the hospital or setting up a cafeteria line?" The gloves were also, it turns out, the wrong size. After watching Colin struggle with them for a few seconds, I noted that I was on JJ's right side and simply reached out to pull him (and maybe asked Mother Teresa to intercede for my health). I think Colin also gave up on the gloves, or maybe he finally got them to work. Regardless we escorted JJ to the car.

I spread some cloth on the seat for him and suggested that he could dry himself off with a pair of sweatpants that were on the backseat. Colin and I got in the car, rolled down the windows, and proceeded to weigh the options of which hospital was likely to be more friendly to JJ's case. We settled on the rich university hospital down the street. It proved to be a good choice.

We drove into the emergency room lot and I let Colin get out with JJ to escort him inside. I then went to park the car. While I was away with the car, Colin and JJ proceeded through security. At the ER entrance there is a metal detector and an x-ray scanner. Colin threw his wallet and keys in a plastic tray and walked through the metal detector. JJ was careful to remove everything from his pockets, doing so slowly. The security station is a small anteroom before entering the ER lobby. The small area was cramped with three people, and JJ's odor was becoming a fourth discernible presence. The guard was getting impatient. JJ was insistent that he had a penny in his pocket that he should remove before going through the detector; he just couldn't find it. The guard began to hold his breath. Finally JJ found the penny and tossed it in the tray.

The guard waved JJ through the detector and then promptly left the security station.

Colin and JJ had no trouble getting attention from the nurses. When I returned from parking the car JJ had already been admitted, and Colin was speaking with the nurse at the desk. When everything was done Colin asked if the nurse wanted a phone number in case the hospital wanted someone to pick JJ up later. The nurse looked up somewhat incredulously and said, "Sure." Colin hesitated, no doubt realizing that his phone battery was dead and so his phone number would be worthless. He turned to me, "Give her your phone number." Of course.

The next day the hospital called us because JJ was being released and he wanted a ride to the neighboring town. H and I had somewhere to be so, feeling much guilt, I dumped the task on Colin. The hospital had cleaned JJ but had put him back in his old clothes. So Colin went to get JJ some new clothes and let him change at the hospital before setting out in the car. The hospital had renewed a prescription for JJ to treat a seizure disorder. Apparently JJ had been carrying a prescription with him that he could never afford to fill. The hospital kindly paid for the first two weeks of the new prescription, and Colin took JJ to pick up the medicine.

In the car JJ told Colin that he'd been hit by a car while crossing a street in town and was in a coma in another hospital for a few weeks. He had just gotten out recently.

When they arrived at the spot for JJ to get out, he professed his undying gratitude to Colin and promised to call Colin every night. Colin said, "You won't, but that's okay. We'll see you soon."