Helping Out

I have a resident where I work who is suddenly quite seriously ill.  He has lived at the apartment complex for a long time.  With no family close by and active in his life, somehow the office staff, and more specifically, me, became more than a landlord.  He would stop up daily with a joke, to tell me some odd fact, or to just comment on the weather.  He always made sure that others were not around. I suspect he is either rather shy or has a form of social anxiety. He confided to another staff that he thinks of me like his mother.  Which is sweet and at the same time funny in a way as there are not too many years difference in our ages.  But I do sort of treat him the way I treat my eldest as behaviorally he and Chet have much in common.

I didn't know that he had become ill.  Our building had suddenly become used by people who he did not know and I thought that he was just avoiding a visit because of the presence of strangers.  Instead he was hospitalized and I didn't know. 

He is out of the hospital  now and I have been searching for a way to let him know that I am willing to help with some "daily living" tasks that I know he is not up to.  Shopping for instance.  When you don't have a car, the options are the bus or the feet.  He always chose feet, but now his strength is not what it was and it is medically unwise to be out and walking in the cold wintry weather.  But like many people who live in the margins, his phone number changes or is disconnected frequently.  So I had no way to get ahold of him.  I didn't want to just show up at his door and offer.  Despite the fact that he would come to see me, there is a difference to people when you show up in their space.  I kept hoping he would make contact.  Today he did.

He was on his way to treatment but stopped in when he saw the office was quiet to say hello.  So I told him that I shop every single Saturday morning and that I would be happy to pick up anything he needs at the market.  The store I go to is the lowest priced one in town. It would save him a significant amount of money.  To my great relief, he accepted the offer and I was able to get him to tell me a few things he needed. He has been shopping at a local convenience store (a 7-11 type place) because that was as far as he could walk.Aside from having dubious nutritional options he probably is paying 3x what the cost of the same item is in the regular store.

I don't know that he will recover from this illness, but at least there will be healthy food in his cupboards.