This is the fist time I've posted, since Nov. 1, and I have a bit of a story to tell.

I was taking my daily walk in the park the last week of October, and wearing my Stillwater Irish Saffron kilt. It was a rainy, cold day, and I stopped at the pavilion to get out of the rain that had started back up. A woman's voice from behind me asked if I was Scottish or Irish. When I turned around, I saw that a picnic table had been pushed up against a wall and there was a man and women sitting there. They were wet, wearing worn out clothes, and obviously quite cold. In talking to them, I found out that they had been homeless for over three years, and had walked to the park in the rain the previous night. They only had one winter coat to share, and the zipper on the coat was broken. The only thing that they had to eat for the past week was some crackers and small candy bars. Our only shelter at the Salvation Army was full, so they had no where to stay except on the street.

The man was age 40 and the woman was age 30. They had been living together for several years in a nearby city, but lost their jobs and their apartment due to illness. They woman had been in a comma at University Hospital with an advanced strep A, flesh eating bacteria. She had been given the last rights by a priest because she was not expected to survive even after emergency surgery. At the same time this young woman was in a comma, the man, her fiancée, was in another hospital with a major heart attack.

I simply was not able to walk away from this couple, telling them that I hoped they could get back on their feet. I knew it was a risk, but I took them home so that they could eat, shower, and put on what warm clothes my wife and I could give them. I paid an initial fee so that could get medical care at our community clinic. The woman had to be placed in the hospital immediately, and underwent two life saving surgeries over a period of 10 days. The surgeon said that she would have died in the street in a matter of weeks. The man had to be placed on medication for his heart condition.

To make a long story short, the man is now on his way to school to become an over-the-road truck driver (the 18 wheelers). The woman works everyday at at Taco Bell, and is saving her earnings in a bank account so that they can have their own apartment and get married. I supply transportation for her until they can get their own vehicle.

I'm a full-time kilt wearer, and disabled, so I had some time on my hands to help them help themselves. I got many compliments on my kilts (traditional wools as well as Utilikilts) from doctor's nurses and nurse's aids while visiting the woman in the hospital. I talked to the social worker handling they woman's case, about possibly doing some part-time volunteer work at the hospital, such as visiting with patients, getting someone water when the nurse's and aids were running their legs off. I told the social worker that I would be wearing a kilt if I did so, because it is my daily attire. She replied that it would be perfectly ok for me to wear a kilt, and they would be happy to have me wear one.

I've reflected quite a bit on this situation. Had I not been wearing a kilt , this chance meeting would probably not have taken place, and this man and woman might still be on the street.


Darrell