She walked into the drop in with her head held high, her long strawberry blonde hair (it had seen better days) swirled around her head like flames of fire looking to devour anything in its path. Our eyes meet when she entered the room, and I said ‘Hi,’ but she ignored me and quickly moved through the room. I don’t remember meeting her before.
She was both street wise and street tough – a survivor by anyone’s standard. I guessed she was in her mid 20’s, but she looked older.
I tried to connect with her about 1/2 hour later but was ignored – again. Oh well, sometimes it happens…
Today is an unannounced BBQ lunch and now I’m outside in the garden at Dominion Chalmers with my apron and tongs, cooking up a storm. 125 burgers and I’m almost 1/2 done.
Who comes out into the garden but ‘Firestorm’. She quickly glances around, assesses the situation, comes directly over to me and asks, ‘Can I flip some burgers?’
‘Sure,’I replied, ‘But you’ll need a hair net,’ and pulled the gray net up from around my eye brows.
She quickly wrapped her flowing locks in a double hair bun with an elastic, and ran inside for a net.
She ran back, grabbed the tongs, we cooked burgers together and chatted.
As she turned burgers on the BBQ, we watched the flames from the fire circle, twist and coil all around the grill, she said, “When you’re homeless, you never get to cook. I love cooking. Thanks so much for letting me help.”
Question: What other ‘regular’ things do we take for granted?