PLEASE MEET WENDY :
I’d been searching for a young woman who had recently been evicted from a shelter. I’d heard she had been distraught and sick. I called out under a dirty bridge in south Seattle. A voice nearby replied, “She’s over here. With me.” The tent unzipped. She was there with Wendy. Sobbing and cursing her situation.
Cursing her homelessness. She cried as Wendy comforted her. I had not met Wendy. But she consoled the young woman with a silent and powerful compassion I had not seen before.
Wendy cares about her people. “They come to me for everything. Food, blankets, hygiene items, clean needles. I’m so sad when I can’t help them.” She keeps her small encampment village clean, complete with sharp containers. A small stool sits near her door. Like Lucy’s psychiatry booth in the Peanuts cartoon. The doc is usually IN. People come for companionship and consolation. Sometimes they come for help shooting up safely. In an earlier life, Wendy was a medical student and paramedic.
Wendy grew up on the Eastside in an affluent environment. She participated in high school and college sports including basketball, soccer, and swimming. A spiritual person, she avoided drugs, even alcohol. She attended Juanita High School, then Duke University. She attended medical school before contracting leukemia, which she beat. A career change led to further affluence as an account executive at a
mortgage company. But in 2016 Wendy was struck by a texting driver and suffered a head injury. She became addicted to pain meds which led to her heroin addiction. “They cut off my meds. But heroin was cheap and available.” Heroin would lead to Wendy’s rapid spiral from wealthy account executive to
homelessness.
Wendy is no longer interested in money or career advancement. She wants to help others now. “I used
to turn my nose up at homeless people. I thought homeless people were disgusting. Until I became one. Now it’s cold and I miss my family.” Wendy spoke her next words through tears: “Tell people homelessness is not contagious. Neither is drug use. It’s ok to stop and say hi to us. I know there are terrible people out here. People with no souls at all,” she wiped her eyes and sniffled, “but there are beautiful souls out here too.”
Beacon Hill Neighborhood | Damian
A QUIET THOUGHT - If you're moved by the goodness of this community, please visit http://www.facinghomelessness.org/ and click on the 'donate' button and consider a "monthly recurring" donation of just $5 in support of the work. THANK YOU!
#JustSayHello #Kindness #FacingHomelessness
