Day # 134 - Ms. Rodriguez

She's standing in the hotel lobby and as I walk by she stops me. She asks if I am the manager. I tell her I am and she asks if I know of a local church with office hours. Since I don't know the answer (my church is a little too far) I offer to look it up for her. She follows me to my office and sits in front of my desk. I start searching and she starts talking. She tells me her identity has been stolen and that a police officer and his girlfriend have stolen everything from her as well as abused her in so many other ways.

I get through to a shelter and the woman on the phone is completely indifferent. She cuts me off and tells me they have no space, offering no further assistance. Ms. Rodriguez keeps talking. She asks about my dark features and if I'm Hispanic. I tell her my parents were both born in Cuba. She tells me she was in Cuba in 1997 and what a nice guy Fidel Castro is (she's lost me at this point.) I tell her I would love to meet Castro so I could stab him in the eye with a rusty icepick.

I'm having no luck finding a place to send her. She keeps talking, telling me about the $900 million that the black church stole from her and how she is being tracked. When I print up a web page for her, and there is a picture of a black person on it, she tells me "they" did it. They are watching her and they decide what happens. She warns me to stay away from black women. She tells me "they're voodoo" and will ruin me. She tells me about how the black church used $600 trillion to get Barack Obama elected. I want to tell her that there isn't that much money in the world, but what's the use. Although she is clean and articulate, she is obviously sick. She is calmly ranting about the evil black man and woman and how she intends to use her money (when she gets it back from the evil black church) to put through a bill in congress that will legalize any Hispanic person in the US illegally.

The thing about Ms. Rodriguez is, she's black herself. She spoke no Spanish. When I put her on the phone with an attendant, she handed me back the phone, saying she wasn't going to "talk with no n----r." I explained to her that the woman on the phone was obviously Hispanic, and a couple of minutes later, she finally got on the phone. I gave her money for a cab to get her to the shelter and she eventually left.

Now, it's obvious Ms. Rodriguez was sick. She had written manifestos, of which she gave me a copy. She painted her nails with my liquid paper, and was all over the place, mentally speaking. I don't know that she would have been a danger to anyone, herself included, but she was in need of help and it seemed pretty damn near impossible to find it for her.

How is it that a government that taxes the hell out of us under the pretense of "spreading the wealth around" has no services that can be offered to a person such as this? Christ said what you do the least among you, you do to me. Well, he must be pissed. This woman was no drug addict. She struck me as someone of at least average intelligence and of some education. She was paranoid, of that I'm sure, and what else?

We spend billions of dollars on Woodstock museums and bridges to nowhere and the NEA and to fund abortions. We pay farmers not to grow food in order to artificially inflate food prices while the rest of the world starves. I have no doubt that God put Ms. Rodriguez in my life for a reason. I believe I did the right thing. I tried to get her help. I got her to a shelter and I am praying that she finds the help she needs. While I did what seemed like enough at the moment, I wonder if it was. I wonder if I failed a test. I wonder if my humanity was enough. I wonder where she slept last night. I wonder if she slept last night. I wonder. I wonder. I wonder...

If you are given the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life, you must. You do have time. You can spare a few dollars. You can help. Be a blessing to others and God will bless you.

- Adolfo


http://www.cakewhimsybyabdaliz.com
http://www.adolfojimenez.com
http://www.honeybeepartyrental.com
http://www.facebook.com/adolfojimenez1
http://www.twitter.com/adolfojimenez