​Timothy called just now and apologized that he couldn’t wait until tomorrow to share what is the best news I’ve heard in weeks: he will be released in ten days from the nursing home where he has been recuperating from his amputations and going to his very first apartment that he can call home. In all of his 53 years, Timothy has never once lived in his own place, and now he will be. Since January, he has been hospitalized for losing all of his toes this past winter and without complaining once, he stayed the course of recovery, going from Harlem Hospital to a facility in the East Bronx where he learned to walk again.
My heart filled as he told me the news. There are so few good outcomes with the people I have known on the street, and often not by their own hand. The fact that Timothy’s journey has taken him this far astounds me and renews my belief in the tenacity and goodness of our brothers and sisters whose lives have been compromised by the ill-fate of homelessness. His own home!! He worked so hard for this, never once giving in to the huge challenges he faced after he was hospitalized. The words aren’t forming here as I want them to because my joy is so deep.
Before we ended our conversation, Timothy told me that he wants to share his good news and good fortune further in the form of a baby gift for my not-yet-born grandson. He said he only needed a suggestion as what he could get for the baby……..and that’s precisely when I lost it completely and started to sob, without apology.
What a magical man Timothy is. And I can only wonder if he is aware of how magical he truly is.