Uplifting story
- Thread starter recoveringenabler
- Start date
Mattsmom277
Active Member
Beautiful !!!
True story time that I hadn't thought of in years until this video brought it all back. I have mentioned through the years that I was a teen runner from foster placements. I spent about 9 months on the streets in Toronto at one point. I was panhandling the same spot about a week, for food money (legitimately it was spent on food). One man stopped every day, never offered me a penny but instead would just talk to me. Every day for a week on his way to and from his office in the building behind me he asked me very prying questions, at first judgemental saying go home to your parents who must miss you and stop acting like a spoiled brat and scaring them. Well day one that bought him a angry tirade and a clue that he had no clue. I had no family. I was at about foster placement 25 and several group home stays and had been very badly abused as well. Don't tell me at that age that I wasn't better off going it alone on the street. The next day he asked kinder questions, very invasive but clearly curious about his own judgements and wanting to find out the real reason I was there, what about others I've met on the street, their stories.
A week later he was already waiting when I arrived to my panhandling spot. He invited me inside his office building coffee shop, no shame at being with the homeless girl, and bought me coffee and a muffin and said he just wanted to talk to me and perhaps offer me something that could make my life better. Turns out he owned a huge company that made dentures in a very high tech lab, for super custom problem denture needs. He offered me not only a job, but as his first ever "apprentice" where I would work under him for a decent salary and he would teach me what I needed to become a highly skilled tech in his lab and then I could either a) continue on a salary for him or b) pay a fee for using his lab, and become independent and recruit my own orthodontists for referrals. I was dumb struck. I was a homeless street kid, young, not in school.
I spent three months working for him and being apprenticed by him directly, he didn't farm me out to other employees, he literally took me under his wing. He treated me respectfully, professionally and almost grandfatherly. He stopped buying lunch out during the weeks it took for my first pay check. instead he brown bagged it and made me a identical lunch and he sat in the lab with me for lunch each day until I could afford to buy my own lunch stuff.
I would have never left that job I bet, a career after just a few years under his teachings would have been very lucrative. Unfortunately I was found by police as I was a missing person and a minor, and transported back to my home town where I was locked into a secure foster care facility. But I've thought of him often through the years. He offered me a true gift.
True story time that I hadn't thought of in years until this video brought it all back. I have mentioned through the years that I was a teen runner from foster placements. I spent about 9 months on the streets in Toronto at one point. I was panhandling the same spot about a week, for food money (legitimately it was spent on food). One man stopped every day, never offered me a penny but instead would just talk to me. Every day for a week on his way to and from his office in the building behind me he asked me very prying questions, at first judgemental saying go home to your parents who must miss you and stop acting like a spoiled brat and scaring them. Well day one that bought him a angry tirade and a clue that he had no clue. I had no family. I was at about foster placement 25 and several group home stays and had been very badly abused as well. Don't tell me at that age that I wasn't better off going it alone on the street. The next day he asked kinder questions, very invasive but clearly curious about his own judgements and wanting to find out the real reason I was there, what about others I've met on the street, their stories.
A week later he was already waiting when I arrived to my panhandling spot. He invited me inside his office building coffee shop, no shame at being with the homeless girl, and bought me coffee and a muffin and said he just wanted to talk to me and perhaps offer me something that could make my life better. Turns out he owned a huge company that made dentures in a very high tech lab, for super custom problem denture needs. He offered me not only a job, but as his first ever "apprentice" where I would work under him for a decent salary and he would teach me what I needed to become a highly skilled tech in his lab and then I could either a) continue on a salary for him or b) pay a fee for using his lab, and become independent and recruit my own orthodontists for referrals. I was dumb struck. I was a homeless street kid, young, not in school.
I spent three months working for him and being apprenticed by him directly, he didn't farm me out to other employees, he literally took me under his wing. He treated me respectfully, professionally and almost grandfatherly. He stopped buying lunch out during the weeks it took for my first pay check. instead he brown bagged it and made me a identical lunch and he sat in the lab with me for lunch each day until I could afford to buy my own lunch stuff.
I would have never left that job I bet, a career after just a few years under his teachings would have been very lucrative. Unfortunately I was found by police as I was a missing person and a minor, and transported back to my home town where I was locked into a secure foster care facility. But I've thought of him often through the years. He offered me a true gift.
Oh Boy Mattsmom, your story brought tears to my eyes. It's easy to forget that there are some incredible human beings out there...............what a wonderful, amazing and heartwarming story, thank you so much for sharing it. Have you ever tried to contact that man?
Mattsmom277
Active Member
I did try to find him about 10 years later, but he had just months before sold his company so I had no way to find him.
Scent of Cedar *
Well-Known Member
These stories are heartstoppingly beautiful. Mattsmom, your story made the first story so real to me.
A heartfelt thank you to you both.
Cedar
A heartfelt thank you to you both.
Cedar
