Sometimes, our opportunity to help is right in front of our eyes; we just need to have the heart to see it. A woman named Ginger Sprouse recalled seeing a homeless man, Victor Hubbard, quite often, as reported by CBS News. For three years, she would find the man in the same spot on the streets on her way to work. At first, she wondered why he couldn’t get a job or try to change his life. She asked him a question out of curiosity, and it made all the difference in transforming his life. Sprouse noted how her approach to homeless people was always indifferent.
A familiar face on her morning commute
“I would say, ‘Why don’t you get a job?’ or, ‘What’s your problem?’ It made me very uncomfortable. I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I’ve been that way my whole life,” she recalled. When it came to Hubbard, he was also posed the same question — “Why?” However, when she learned Hubbard’s story, she was taken aback. The man became homeless after his mother moved and left him. Ever since, he had been on the streets. “Then I couldn’t get him out of my mind,” the woman remarked. “And so I was like, ‘Fine, I’ll go back.’ But then what got me was probably after about the third time I met him, he said, ‘When are you coming back?’” Sprouse mentioned.
Despite Sprouse’s approach, which seemed harsh to many, in Hubbard’s eyes, she was a friend. “People would come by and I was like, ‘You know, I have a friend named Ginger. She’s on her way,” the man remarked. His unique perspective was that he “was taken care of.” These two mindsets clashed to evolve into something wonderful. The duo would often meet when Sprouse was on her way to work. After a few months of these uncanny meetings, the woman made an unexpected decision. It was a cold night with rain and she couldn’t stop thinking about Hubbard.
A bond forms between two unexpected friends
Though the man had his blankets, it was disturbing for Sprouse to wonder how he’d get by. She caught her husband, Dean, off guard with a request. “I asked Dean, ‘Would it be okay with you if I went and got him?’” she recalled. She assured her husband that it would be a matter of a night due to the weather. Dean did find it unusual, considering that Sprouse was not one to take in the homeless. However, he noticed that there was something to this request. “When she said, ‘I feel compelled to help this guy,’ how can I say no to that?” he remarked.
The woman got Hubbard home that night, but not for a day, for life. He joined them as a family and has been living with them ever since. The couple helped him get social services and everything he needed to settle as a well-respected man with a decent living. He got two jobs, one at Sprouse’s cooking school. While Hubbard is undoubtedly grateful, Sprouse unlearned and relearned life in the process. “We’re going to make mistakes and life is messy, but if you’re going to love other people, you have to be willing to step into their mess. My whole life, I wanted to avoid that,” the woman remarked, adding that she is now ready to accept it all with a welcoming and loving heart.
This article originally appeared earlier this year.
