Operation DoGooder: Gratitude

Since helping Kevin get into his new apartment, I've stayed in touch with him by stopping by every so often. Back in December and January, it was every week, but as he's settled in and become comfortable in his surroundings, it's evolved to every other week or so.

Staying home all the time to avoid the 'rona has been hard for him. He'd just started to feel settled, and was looking forward to getting out more in the spring when everything shut down. Like the rest of the world, he's had to adjust his expectations. Other than the people who man the counter at the local convenience store, he tells me I'm the only one he sees. It's a lonely existence.

Still, when I talked to him this past week, he was filled with gratitude. 

He has a television and a deck of cards, and spends his days watching reruns of old classic TV series from the 60s and 70s and playing solitaire. When he first got his antenna and found the channel, he asked me where he could get a TV Guide; he was sorely disappointed to hear such things no longer exist in print. Not one to stay down too long, he spent the next week logging which shows were on when. He only cares about the one channel, and they don't seem to change the lineup too often, so he's now set and knows what show to anticipate watching next. 

With his newfound freedom to set his own schedule, he's settled into a night owl's schedule and goes out for a walk each night in the wee hours of the morning. While we gave him the basics to furnish his apartment, the package was sorely short on decorative items. After a few months of staring at the bare walls, he couldn't stand it anymore, and he's started bringing home fallen sticks from his nightly ambles. The branches, along with a few live plants he's gotten his hands on, go a long ways to making the place feel like home.

One of the benefits of staying where he does is the physical connection of the building to a local social services center where they offer a free lunch each day. (He's fuzzy on the details of why they do this, but enjoyed going down for his daily social interaction before the virus stopped everything cold.) The people of his building, all of them at high risk for complications if they catch the virus, can no longer come to lunch, so the Center has taken to delivering lunch to each apartment every day instead. He looks forward to the daily knock on the door and rushes to open it before they get too far away, so he can shout his thanks down the hall.

Food, safety. He can control his own schedule. He lives in a decently maintained building and pays an affordable, sustainable rent. He's a shining example of something gone right in a world gone tospy turvy.

It does my doGooder heart good to see him doing so well.