86 - The One Person I Managed to Save

One goal achieved.

For a year now,

I’ve been looking after a homeless girl who comes to the shop at least three times a week.

It wasn’t much 

Just a large hot drink in winter, 

a cold one on the scorching days,

and whatever food she could take back to her tent under the bridge.

Sometimes, the only thing I could offer was a space where she could talk

without judgement, 

without needing to pretend she was okay.

As the months passed, 

she stopped wearing masks around me.

She told me about her life, 

her struggles, 

Her condition that I wasn't aware of,

her schizophrenia 

Whenever she had an episode, 

she would come back later and explain it to me.

There were days she arrived agitated,

and I found myself talking to her 

and to the other voice living inside her mind.

I asked for advice from customers who worked in mental health,

from people in government services,

from anyone who might know how to help her.

If I could have taken her home, 

I would have 

but I’m barely holding myself together as it is.

She was robbed more than once.

Her belongings stolen while she was away.

She told me one night, she found a man inside her tent.

She almost got assaulted.

Ironically, 

she said her schizophrenia saved her 

that she “went psycho,”

screamed like a wild thing,

and scared him off.

So I kept trying.

Pushing, 

asking, 

connecting her with whoever might listen.

And finally 

after a year of trying

she got a place to live.

She came back yesterday 

She said she didn’t know there were still kind people in the world.

She told me she washed her clothes for the first time in a year,

that she had a roof, a table, food,

and that she slept in peace.

She thanked me again and again

before heading back to her new “home.”

Reading this, 

some might think,

“Oh, how good you are.”

But no.

That’s not it.

There’s nothing noble in what I did.

I just needed a reason to stay here,

something to keep me occupied,

someone I couldn’t allow to fall the way others have.

I helped her find peace 

the one thing I can’t seem to give myself.

Ironic, isn’t it?

I spend my days helping others find safety,

while I can’t find a place inside myself

that feels anything like home.

But at least… 

at least I finally managed to save one person