“I was born in California,” he told me, but has lived in Evansville, Indiana his entire life. As we talked more, I realized he was placed into the foster care system at age 6. A woman in Indiana later adopted him.
“My mom (talking about his adopted mother), was like Aunt Bee on the Andy Griffith Show,” he said with a smile. As he continued to describe his parents he commented, “My dad (adopted father) was an Evangelist.” I could tell he was proud of the parents who raised him in life, but he was struggling. A string of bad choices mixed with a little bad luck landed him on the streets. Today he is 48-years old.
The conversation then took a downturn. “I buried my best friend yesterday,” he said while looking down. When I asked who died he said, “My mom. My dad died last year and my mom passed away this past week, she was 88.” He told me she was the best woman ever.
“No language can express the power, and beauty, and heroism, and majesty of a mother’s love. It shrinks not where man cowers, and grows stronger where man faints, and over wastes of worldly fortunes sends the radiance of its quenchless fidelity like a star.” - Edwin Hubbell Chapin