Beggars and such...

I once new this old beggar, he sat outside checkers every day, and drew pictures… I was working at CNA the time, and when someone gave him some money he would come to CNA to buy new pens… one day I went outside to have a sigaret and he was sitting there on the floor with a big cardboard box spread out on the floor he was concentrating so hard that I drew closers without him noticing…

What I saw amazed me! He was drawing the floor plan of a cathedral… and on the side panels of the box were the walls of the cathedral, drawn to size! It was amazing… that this man who you never look in the eye when passing by because you don’t want to admit to yourself that people like him are out there, could have a talent so profound.

So the next time I went out for a sigaret, I offered him one, and we started talking, we started talking about trivial things… but I soon learned that, he was once one of Durban’s up and coming architects, that he was married and had 2 children but that when his firm folded his wife left him and took the kids to come and live with her mother here in Pretoria.

He sold all he had to come here and find them, in the hope that he would be able to reconcile with her and his kids… but when he got here he couldn’t find them at the address he thought they lived. His money and will was running low, so he turned to drink, and lost what little he had left. When he finally realized what he was doing to himself and sobered up, he was unemployable, dirty and homeless.

So this is where I found him. Drawing buildings outside Checkers… for that entire Desember I spent my tee and lunch brakes talking to him, one day he gave me 3 drawings, one was the completed drawing that I saw the first time I met him, the day after that he wasn’t there any more… I never saw him again, but I still have the cathedral he drew on the cardboard box.

Now matter how smart or talented we are, we are not infallible… no one is without fault or weakness… and John taught me that! I hope where ever he finds himself that he made it out of his rut… that he found his wife and kids, and that he is happy. (But I think this might be a long way from what really happened to him)

I don’t know why this story struck me tonight, might be thinking that I’m happy, even when things didn’t work the way I had hoped… I still came out on top!