A Night Before Christmas

 By Erin with the Good Hair

Christmas Magazine, 2018

I came across this thread on Twitter, and it made me once again realize, that the most precious human interactions can be the most unexpected ones. We just have to be open and take the time to experience them and not look the other way.

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Two years ago, I got angry one night in mid-December, and went for a drive. I stopped for gas and a young man who I had driven by earlier walked by wearing jeans and a hoodie. It was 20 degrees, but with the wind, felt like 10.

Against my better judgement, I offered him a ride: I don’t give rides to strangers. Ever. But I felt compelled to offer. “Where are you headed?” I asked. 

He told me and then said, “I’m from NY, I’m not sure how far it is.” 

“I know where you’re going,” I told him (just a mile up the road). He got in my Jeep. His fingers were bright red.

We started to chat. His mom was dead. He had lived with his girlfriend, but they broke up. He couldn’t afford their apartment on his own income, and had ended up homeless, staying on couches. His girlfriend had owned their car and when he couldn’t always find a ride, he ended up losing his job.

A friend around here told him he could stay with them while he got a fresh start. Things are cheaper here. Unemployment is lower. He bought a bus ticket from NYC and some food for the ride with the last of his money, and with nothing but hope, came out this way.

He was still shivering from his walk in the cold.

“Do you like hot chocolate?” I asked.

Of course, he did. I pulled into Dunkin Donuts. I got us two medium hot chocolates and I pulled into a space.

“Let’s sit and drink these and you can finish telling me your story,” I said.

He told me some more as we sipped our cocoa. He was barely in his twenties. Life hadn’t been very kind to him. But oh, he had so much hope that things were happening the way they should… happening for a reason. It took everything I had not to break down in tears.

I told him I admired his positive spirit. I pointed out the apartment complex he was headed for, across the street.

“If it was right there,” he asked, “why did you get me a hot chocolate and talk to me when you didn’t have to?”

“Because something told me you needed it,” I said.

I pulled ten bucks out of my wallet, (the only cash I was carrying) and pressed it into his hand.

He told me he didn’t want my money.

I told him he needed it more than I did, that it was Christmas. Consider it a gift. It might as well have been $100, the way he started to cry.

I never saw him again. December rolls around, and I think about him. I think what HE did for ME. He had hope in a seemingly IMPOSSIBLE situation. He found the strength to take the steps to make a positive change in his life, despite having nothing. If he could do it, I could too.

A few months later, I left a toxic relationship. I was scared about the difficulties I would face, but I remembered that young man who was starting over with nothing but faith and hope, and I found the strength to tell myself I could start anew.

If you ever get the chance to help a stranger, please take it. There’s no telling how they’ll end up helping you too. Hope may be abandoned, but it can always be reclaimed.