This morning I had an encounter that had a profound impact on me, I as at the gas station on Asbury and Oakton getting gas about 6:15am. As I was pumping gas I caught a figure out of the corner of my eye running towards me, I’m not the scary type but immediately tried to access everything around me including the fact that I may need to use the gas nozzle to “shoot” gas on the approaching figure. She must have sensed my guard and stopped about twenty feet away, yes, it turned out to be a woman who I learned later was thirty-six.
She was wearing a men’s coat that was at least a 3x and way to big on her and a blue skull cap. She said, “can you help me?”, at this point my guard was no longer up but, in my mind, I thought – here goes another crack head beggin’ for money…
I was wrong about the money part, she said she would give me three dollars to give her a ride the Howard El stop she needed to go to her “friends” house. She came closer and I was still pumping gas, she said that she was out with some dude who just dropped her off after “partying” all night and then left her stranded because he had to go home to his woman. She reeked of alcohol and I knew she was on drugs, I started asking her questions and learned she grew up in Evanston, went to Dawes, Chute and ETHS. I was trying to create familiarity and at the same time looking around to see if her “crew” was sneaking around my car or coming up from behind to rob me.
Like most of us when we are being completely honest, I largely ignore beggars, the homeless, and drug addicts and have no compassion for them.
I asked her how do I know it’s safe to give her a ride? What she did next both kind of made me laugh and broke my heart at the same time. She pulled one of those tiny bottles of vodka (almost empty) out of her enormous coat pocket and threw it in the trash, and then said, “And I’ll take off all my clothes”. That’s the part that broke my heart…my immediate thoughts were how can a young woman from our town (E-Town) be in this state, obviously strung out, use to being abused, and desperate.
I told her okay I’ll give her a ride and I didn’t want her three dollars and please keep her close on. We start driving and she is all over the board about family, having her arm broken trying to get out of a car with a drunk driver (she says it’s still broke), to being homeless. I also realized I had tears in my eyes.
She told me she lied and was not going to the El station but instead to Juneway and Sheridan where she lives sometimes with a nice “older” lady. I am guessing she really didn’t have three dollars either. My final question for her was are you doing drugs? She admitted to using cocaine and then went on to tell me that she needs it to stay alive and helps her mentally.
I let her out at Juneway and Sheridan, and she thanked me for being so nice to her, I told her to get help and gave her my business card.
Her name was Nuri or Noorie or Nouri, I was so stunned by the encounter that I didn’t think to ask her how to spell it.
My vision for 2020 is to literally see things more clearly and look deeper into everything! So my Evanston folks, I need your help or more importantly this young lady needs OUR help! If you know this girl let’s see if we can help her, she’s one of ours…
Inbox me if you know who she is.
