BUSH FLOWER REMEDY

Driving by on Colfax
I saw him next to a
Jack in the Box there
in North Hollywood - his balance
was off, like he was very
drunk, and he was
stumbling in his
hospital blue garb.
I went over to see if he
was okay. He said no. Asked
if he wanted me to call
911 to go to the
hospital, he said
that was the last place he
wanted to be. He'd just gotten
out - after having been hit by a car-
but his clothes &
shoes were lost -
then he asked if there was
any way I could buy him a single
taco. I did. And some water.
For which he was very
grateful. He said he wanted
to remember my name
"because it is very unusual
for anyone to do what
you have done for me."
Sadly I didn't do very much.
He told me he wanted
to go to the park
at Tujunga & Magnolia -
so I drove him there. Then he
told me the story - he owned
Willard's Florist - a flower sho[
blocks from our home we
knew for years. Said something
about his wife accusing him'
of a crime he didn't commit
so she could leave him -
and he lost her and his daughter
and his home-
and said how legal bills and
problems and medical problems
and bills all came together
to leave him here
without shoes or even
clothes - just a leather jacket-
now homeless in these streets,
cut off from the life
he created and yet so
close to it.

No longer a florist, but a 1929 building and neon sign preserved for history in uptown Charlotte, NC. The building was moved across the street, so that condos could be built above it, then moved back in 2004 into it's original position below the new Ratcliffe On The Green condominiums.