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Rodney Makes it til Friday
While sitting along the banks of the Mississippi in New Orleans, a homeless man approached me with a broad grin on his face. He appeared to be clean of drugs and alcohol and I smiled back. "My mother used to knit!" he exclaimed while admiring my current project. He sat down beside me as I continued to knit this piece. "Did she ever make you a sweater?" I asked him. "Yes, but I lost everything two years ago."
With a little prompting, Rodney continued to tell me his story. He was working as a waiter at Commander's Palace and when walking home from work one night he was hit and nearly killed by a drunk driver. He lost his job and had no health insurance and underwent several surgeries at Charity Hospital over the next two years. Rodney rolled up his pant leg and showed me an extremely swollen, misaligned leg. "Yeah, I just hope I make it till Friday," he sighed.
Rodney then told me that he was scheduled to have his leg amputated on Friday. I drew a short breath at this comment and asked him if he was afraid. "No, I'm not afraid of that," he replied.
"Well, what are you afraid of?" I asked, though I couldn't imagine a fate much worse. He told me that he was afraid of the storm clouds on the far bank of the Mississippi. We had experienced a severe thunderstorm the evening before and Rodney had slept outside in it. He explained to me that it cost $5 per night to stay in the shelter and he didn't have $5. It is illegal to sleep outside in New Orleans and he was afraid of being thrown in jail again.
Rodney was actually looking forward to his surgery on Friday because it guaranteed a two month stay in the hospital followed by 100% disability and job retraining.
I added Rodney to the tapestry I was knitting and named it 'Rodney makes it till Friday'.
Intarsia Tapestries
