Our gospel reading last Sunday included the parable of the Good Samaritan. Here, Bernard and Debbie Young share their own Good Samaritan story.
Debbie and I owned a brownstone house in Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn, New York. Our tenants skipped out on us, without notice and without paying their rent. They had wrecked the house. We decided to sell it. Our realtor told us that there were rats in the cellar. We engaged a firm to take care of the problem.On Thursday February 20, 2020, we met an exterminator at the house. He told us that we needed to get garbage bags. We decided to walk the two short blocks to what was a ‘commercial’ street. As soon as we made it to that very busy, heavily trafficked street, Debbie slipped and went face down on the sidewalk. I got down to help her. As she raised her head, she kept saying that she could not see. Folk just passed us by. No one offered, or stopped, to help us for nearly five minutes. I just knelt and held her as she kept saying that she could not see. Then I heard a voice saying that I should call 911. I tried then to get her up on her feet as the same voice said “ let me help you to get her up.” Two arms joined mine and we got her up. She kept holding me, still telling me that she couldn’t see. I wanted to get her to a place where I could maybe sit her down while I called 911. We were close to a ‘Church’s Fried Chicken’ shop, so the person helping me suggested that we could find a seat in there. We got her in and sat her down. The same voice asked what could he do and I said ‘get her something sugary to drink, Sprite or orange soda.’ I pulled out my cell phone, punched in 911 and gave some information to the dispatcher. When I finished talking, I saw a guy holding a can of soda and a bottle of water, with straws in them; he was holding them to her lips telling her to take sips. Just then I heard a man’s loud voice shouting and cursing, ‘you homeless piece of ….. get out of my store.’ It was then that I looked at the person who had been helping me. His attire and his appearance made me realize that he was a homeless man; he was Hispanic and in his late twenties. I got angry; this homeless guy was the only person who had not passed us by, he had paid for the soda and the water, his money had been accepted and now he was being’ thrown out.’ The paramedics arrived, keeping me from using a few choice words. I am not certain how long the guy stood around but as I was dealing with the paramedics, he slipped away. I never got to thank him or to repay him what he had spent but, as Debbie was being put into the ambulance, one of the paramedics mentioned to me that ‘that homeless guy had walked off with my soda and my water’. I quickly told him that that homeless guy had purchased them and they were his, not mine.
We went to a neighboring hospital, and Debbie's sight slowly returned before we got there. I happened to have been on the hospital board, but we signed her out and subsequently had her admitted to the hospital in Manhattan where she had worked, overseen by the doctors for whom she had worked. She had surgery on February 24, 2020. She had fractured the orbital lobe under her right eye; she has a titanium plate under that eye. That side of her face is still quite numb.
Many people passed us by that day; only a guy who lived in the streets and had no place to lay his head, stopped to help and even spent what little money he had. I pray for him regularly. Wherever he is, May God bless him, provide for him and keep him safe.