Do not judge me before you know me

Your life may be a mess and you wonder what in the world you are going to do. You sit with an empty mind and wonder within yourself, "is there is another like me?". Most times  we sit and gripe on what we are going through, we will feel hopeless and lost. We will feel pitiful and longing for someone to rescue us. There are days if you just step out and look, help someone, you will realized that you are blessed beyond what you think.

Sometimes the faces and actions of people may hide what the are really feeling on the inside. It is very easy at times to know when someone is genuinely expressing joy, faking it is harder face to read.  The other day I was on the interstate and I saw a lady walking on the side of the road. It  is not normal, and if it happens it would be a guy. I was driving about 75 miles per hours and as usual if I see someone that look like they need help, I will stop. This lady was walking and there was not an exit for the next five miles. I stopped and asked where she was heading and she said a place called Dunwoody, that is about forty seven miles away. I picked her up and hoped everything will be OK because I picked up a lady on the same interstate once who happen to be a prostitute. I told her I had to stop at home for about fifteen minutes so I can change because I was going to a meeting. She did not mind one bit.

She got in the car and we exchanged names. "What is your name and where are you heading"? I asked. "I am going to Dunwoody to meet my brother to see if I can stay with him for a while" We chatted some, you know getting to know each other for the  little time we will spend together?.  "So where are you coming from?" She told me she was coming from a shelter and she was not having a good time and had to leave. I did not bother to ask the technicalities as to why this is happening. About two miles in the journey I heard she said she is now clean for thirty days. I stopped at the house, changed and got her some grapes, yogurt and a juice.

"Now what are you clean from if you do not mind me asking?" She began telling me about meth and what it did and how it affected her. I think she is the second person I spoke directly and intensively to who have been on meth. It affected her whole life she said and she was indeed proud to be free for that time. I asked her what caused her to start using meth. It is so incredible that a lot of people started exactly the way she did. She had gallstone removed and to make a long story short she got hooked on the pills the doctor proscribed. She ended up doing some backdoor deals to get her fix. She said when she first got the pills she got really happy and outspoken.  (Do not judge her because you do not know her). It so be that she graduated from the pills to meth.  Nearing my destination I told her to call her brother to know where to meet him and what she needs to do. She called her brother and I could see her countenance changed. Her brother, she said, told her she cannot come to stay with him unless she finds a job. She began to cry because she does not know what to do and that is the point she is at now. At that point I had no idea what to do because I thought the brother would help. Now I do not know the issue with her and the family, bit she was in my car and I offered help and I wanted to do the best I can and that was what I intended to do. We talk of different options and we finally settled on her going t the ER because they can call someplace to make her stay after a twenty four hour stay.  I told I have to go to my meeting and she will have to stay in the car until I am done.

I left her in the car, went to the meeting and came back to see her waiting. That was a chance I took because I do not really know her. I took a few photographs of her and of course like any other woman she said she is not well put together and her hair is unkept. We left and she began telling me about her grand children and how she is having separation anxiety. For a moment I wanted to ask if there was anything significant in her childhood that may have cause all of what she shared but I did not.

I had to make another stop at home again because I was going to volunteer and the local hospital ER. Just nearing home she told me she was molested by her step father when she was a five years old. "My mom was there" she says. "What did she do?" I asked.  "She did nothing" I guess because the man is stronger she could not or for some other reason but in the end she divorced him. I stopped at the house again and got changed, made her a sandwich and left. 

The lady wept in the car a few times because feels like she does know what to do. She told me she tried to commit suicide but on those occasions she just passed out and ended up in the hospital. She made fun of how when she was about 20 she was in Georgia at a party and found herself on a bus going to Texas. She said she spend a good time in TX and that is where she got pregnant and had her only child. "That baby saved my life" she said. I asked why and she said if she was not born who know where she would have ended up. 

I reached my destination and as I promised, I prayed with her and she went to the ER where I left her. She took my card and told me she will call me and tell me where she took her so I can see her sometimes.