Carlos joined us for our free store conversation on Wednesday morning but rather than lead us in a discussion as he normally does he showed us how to make carrot juice using the juicer he is letting us use. Surprisingly it took about twenty pounds of carrots to make what might have amounted to about a gallon of juice. We decided that it would take some real committment to do this because it is a very time intensive activity. Although we made it available to everyone that was there not all our friends were willing to try it. Overall, it was a fun experience and we enjoyed being able to try something new and being able to scratch "juicing" off of our bucket list.
Our friend George Hunt told us that he had recently lost a good friend by the name of Kathy Jordan. Kathy was fifty-four years old and was killed May 1 while crossing the train tracks in northeast Charlotte. She was struck by an Amtrak train carrying 126 passengers from Raleigh to Charlotte. George was very familiar with the spot where the accident happened as he used to hang out with Kathy in that part of the city.
George went on to tell us that he met Kathy while he was working with Labor Ready, a temporary job company. He said that he was holdin the sign and she was drivin the truck when she stopped and asked him if he had a girlfriend. She told him that he 'was a good lookin man" which made us laugh. George had a big grin on his face while telling this story and we all got much enjoyment from it and it also gave us more to tease him about through the day.
George said that it was suspicious that she was killed at a railroad crossing. He went on to say, "I don't believe nobody cares about a homeless person that is killed." However, it must have looked a bit suspcious because the newspaper reported that the police were investigating and looking for witnesses that might have seen what happened. It was sobering to realize that in our world some lives are valued more than others.
As our conversation moved to a close we talked about how short and brief life is. Someone said since time is short that makes it something very precious which is why every hour, every minute, and ultimately every second of life is important. Although none of us knew Kathy except our friend George her life managed to impact us in a very real and personal way as we talked about her death. It is quite powerful to recognize that the death of a single person impoverishes the world of the living. Ultimately, it is very encouraging to realize that there really are no insignificant lives or unimportant people.
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