Last night I was honored to work with a great team of people that helped a quadriplegic man get off the streets. I was also privileged and extremely humbled to meet our new friend.

The night before Edward and his brother slept outside in the rain. Edward is confined to a wheelchair and cannot feel anything below his neck. He has some slight hand movement but very little. They told me they found a couch on the curb and made a bed out of the soaked cushions. That alone is humbling!

My co-workers and I worked extra hard to make life a little easier on Edward and his brother. We made contact with the VA (Edward is a veteran and on Tuesday they’ll be able to help) and we were able to work out a hotel voucher. Because the shelter operates a school bus it would have been too much of a challenge for Edward to stay at the shelter. We also did his intake in our van so we would not have to lift him in and out several times. Not one person complained about putting in the extra effort to help Edward. We all really didn’t even talk about it, we just made it happen!

While driving Edward to the hotel he shared his story. Those of you that follow me on twitter know I often tweet about fighting back the tears while working in homeless services. This time I could not fight and while Edward spoke in a quiet yet happy voice tears rolled down my face.

Several years back Edward was in a horrible car wreck. In the car with Edward was his bride of 19 months and another good friend. They were hit by a drunk driver. The drunk driver freaked out and kept hitting the gas continuing to slam into the car over and over. The friend was thrown from the car and died. Edward’s wife also died in the wreck. Edward was flown to a hospital in a neighboring town. The hospital started to prep Edward for surgery and a 15 year-old girl also in critical condition was flown in moments later from a different car accident. The hospital only had one surgical team and Edward allowed the surgical team to work on the girl first consciously knowing that his decision would probably result in him being permanently paralyzed.

Edward said to me in a very confident voice, “she was only 15 and I was 43. I’ve lived a life. I had to let her go first”. I was too far gone to ask what happened to the girl. I could not say a word. My mouth was dry and tears were screaming down my face!

Edward’s story humbled me. I don’t know if I could make that sacrifice. Although he is numb from the neck down confined to a wheelchair he has no regrets. He was happy with whatever we presented to him and was a joy to work with. Many people get nasty because their coffee is cold, or they cannot find a covenant parking space.

Too me, Edward is a true hero and I will never forget him. His story has made a huge impact on my life. I often question the tiny sacrifices I’m making to help others and E gave everything to help a young girl he didn’t even know! Maybe he didn’t get his name in the paper or a spot on the Today Show, but no one should sleep outside in the rain, especially heroes like Edward!

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 9:35 pm and is filed under My Big Mouth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.