A personal vignette

By Cainnech Ó Sullibhain

It was just a week before Christmas 1974, and I had taken my son Pierre with me to the Beaver Lumber Store at Applewood Plaza, to buy a few last minute items for our home.

It might have been a very ordinary day, but events would take place that would make it highly unusual.

I had just come out of the Beaver Lumber Store when a man dressed in a rumpled suit and a fedora on his head accosted me. He said, “Sir, would you mind giving me $20.00 for my Rolex wristwatch, because I haven’t eaten for three days?” I then asked him where he was from. He replied that he was a Hungarian émigré who had been living in Switzerland, and had managed to get into Canada. I told him that I did not have $20.00 on my person, but I would accompany him to the small restaurant near the Steinberg Supermarket and buy him a meal. He agreed, and off we went in tow. I asked the waitress to bring a menu and told him to order whatever he wanted. He did not ask for much. I then emptied my wallet and my change pouch and gave the man whatever I had. He then took off his Rolex wristwatch and offered it to me. I refused it, because I already had a watch, which was in perfectly good working order and did not need another watch. I was not interested in taking away from another human being something that I did not want nor need.

My son Pierre then asked me a question. “Papa,” he said, “Why did you give that man the money?” I replied my son, and told him that the man we had just met was in greater need than us; that in life, we must give someone a helping hand in their hour of need, as that is what Christians are supposed to do; that while Christmas was only a week away, our spirit must reflect that joy, by giving unto those who have greater need than us. When we got home, my son told my wife Catherine of our encounter with the stranger and what I had done. My wife Catherine was annoyed with me for having given the man something in his hour of need. I guess it is very hard for some people to be charitable; it’s just not in keeping with their character.

One day I went into a mall and walked into a café, where I saw a woman that I knew sitting having a cup of coffee. I had some 3 kilos of mozzarella cheese in my car and wanted to give it to someone. I noted that the woman was looking very sad, and I thought that I could bring some relief to her sadness with a joke. But, I then thought, that maybe she might be able to use the mozzarella cheese I had in my car. She was Hungarian and could not speak English fluently, but I then told her that I had 3 kilos of cheese for her in my car. Her face immediately lit up with a big smile. She told me that she had been praying, when I had entered the café. I then asked her what she had been praying for. She replied for money to buy some mozzarella cheese to make some lasagna for her son. She then asked me, “Are you really a man or an angel sent from God?” I told her that I was just an ordinary man and that for some reason or other some unseen force had directed me here this morning. That morning I wasn’t really headed in that direction at all, but something kept pulling me towards the place.

One very cold morning in January 1977, the wind chill temperature was 70 below zero, and there was a strong wind. The time was 5:50 am, and I got into my car and took off for work. I had only gone a mile, when I noticed a car on the side of the road. I stopped my car and got out to look if there was someone who was stranded. I looked in the window of the driver’s side and saw a man who seemed to be frozen. So, I tapped on the window, and the man opened his door. I asked him what was wrong. He replied that his car had broken down. I then asked him if I could give him a lift to his workplace. He replied, “I am a Canadien,” to which I replied, “Should that make you any less a human?” He got into my car and I drove him to Meloche Ltee. in Kirkland, Quebec, which was only a mile and a half from where he was stranded. I was very surprised to think that this man did not expect me to care whether he lived or died. But I was unable to walk away from him knowing that he might die of the cold temperature. That is the difference between a human being and an animal.

One day, I was asked by a friend to visit some friends in the area of eastern Ontario, where I might be able to buy some beef. I got to the address and was welcomed by the poor farmer. He invited me into his roughly built home. I sat down and looked around. There were the farmer, his wife and five children. These were dirt-poor people with very little money. The five children were so thin an emaciated that I felt a very sad. I had been through the very same circumstance during the war years and my mind rushed back to those times. I did not get the beef, but I did get another picture. The next day, when I returned to work, I put in an order for a good $100.00 worth of various foodstuffs. The following day when my order was delivered, I took a drive to the farm in eastern Ontario and gave the family all that I had. I hated to think that somewhere out there was a child who is starving. If I can change that, I will do all I can to make the situation better.

Every now and then, my mind takes me back to the wartime years when U.S. merchant mariners came to my house with food, so that we could have something to eat. Those men might have saved my life and through them I learned the meaning of compassion. You cannot walk away from the needs of others without asking yourself first if you can make a difference in their lives. If you can, then follow your words with deeds.

Every now and again, I know of people who are badly in need, and are suffering. I save up all the food that I can get and go to them with it. They sometimes think of you as a Santa Claus who comes laden with goodies, even though it is not Christmas. I know every time that I have arrived at such a home, the word goes out that Santa Claus came to our house today!

Not very long ago a little five year-old girl asked her grandmother if I was Santa Claus. I had been coming over carrying food packages and somehow that girl got me mixed up with Santa Claus. The little girl even told her grandmother, “I think that we will never have to worry about food, because Santa Claus is taking care of us, and he knows when we don’t have anything to eat.” I could not help laughing at the words of the little girl.

My wife and I were on our way to our bank to have some bills paid and other transactions, where I saw an old man struggling to loosen the nuts on his tire, because he wanted to change it, as it was flat. Since it was just outside in the bank parking lot, I told my wife to go and have things done while I helped the man. He had had two heart attacks and he was wheezing trying to use the wrench to get off the nuts. So, I told him to get into the car and sit down while I got the job done. He asked me how much it would cost him. I asked him, for what? He then got in his car and sat, while I removed the tire and changed it. He was 85 years old and told me that his wife was 88 years old and was lying in bed at home because she was really ill. I finished the job, and bade him goodbye, but my clothes were a mess. When I got into the bank, my wife scolded me for helping the stranger and messing up my clothes. I told her that the life of someone was worth much more than my dirty clothes, but she could not fathom what I was really saying.

I have had the opportunity to take care of a lady who was suffering a nervous breakdown and did not have much money. I also made sure that she and her children were never in want. When they ask me why I am doing it, I tell them that in my childhood there were people who cared for me, and they were not my relatives. I am talking about those merchant mariners who made life bearable for my family. It is in this spirit that I offer whatever I can to make the lives of those in need better. I could not stand by, and pretend that it s not my problem, because every human being on this earth is our problem, no matter what we think. Thus, I could never walk away from someone in need.

Only recently, I was at a Tim Hortons, lining up to get myself a cup-o-tea, when the young man in front of me did not know that he had dropped some banknotes on the floor. I nudged him and told him that his money was on the floor, to which he said to a friend that was accompanying him: “Is this the man who looks after the world?” I did not pay any attention, and got my cup-o-tea and sat down to drink. Directly in front of me was a man with a game leg, who was using a special cane. When this man finished his coffee, he got up and left. I noted immediately that his cane was still by his seat. I took the cane and rushed off to give it to him, and that I did. When I got back to my seat to finish my tea, the young man said to his friend: “See I told you that this was the man who looks after the world!” I was bit abashed to have someone say something like that about me; of that I am very sure.

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Related: Canada, Christianity

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