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Hernando Today

Chance Encounter Sparks Homeless Mission

Hernando Today photo by KYLE EVANS

A chance encounter with a homeless person two weeks ago has transformed the life of Suzanne Evans of Brooksville. She has been feeding the homeless in the area and has come to consider them her friends.

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By KYLE MARTIN

Hernando Today

Published: November 16, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Suzanne Evans has a reason to gripe.

Several actually, when you consider she's been in and out of work (mostly out) since her husband died three years ago. Most of the collectibles she spent years acquiring have been sold off to make ends meet and if it wasn't for her friends, Evans wouldn't have a bed at night.

But an encounter at a door two weeks ago changed everything.

Oct. 31 was a day like any other. Evans, 50, planned to spend a few hours writing in the downtown library and was walking toward the entrance with her arms full. As she followed a man through the main entrance, he rudely let the door shut in her face.

A man sitting on a nearby bench sprang up to help her. He called her "ma'am."

Three hours later, Evans emerged from the library for a smoke. She headed over to a park bench in the shade, where a small group was gathered. Among them was the man who had opened the door for her. They cleared a seat for her to sit down.

She overheard one of them remark, "I'm looking for a place to stay tonight."

"Are you new in town?" she asked.

"No I'm homeless," he replied.

Surprised, she began listening to what they had to say, their stories about life before the streets and their current struggle for survival. Something stirred inside her.

Evans returned home with a troubled conscience, the stories still echoing in her head. She shared her experience with her girlfriend. In minutes they were making sandwiches and driving downtown to share them with the homeless.

Evans expected it would be a nice gesture and she could move on with her life. But the homeless cried when they saw her come back with food. And that's when Evans knew her life had changed.

"Now I worry about them every night," she said. "Every day there is a different story for them to tell me. Slowly, we're going to make a change."

Lessons Learned From The Homeless

Over the next week, Evans spent more time with the homeless, building their trust and recording their travails. They taught her to have $5 in her pocket and a ready answer if a deputy stopped to question her. Another lesson involved how to smoke a cigarette so that the glowing butt didn't give away a hiding place.

She witnessed compassion. One of her new friends walked to Spring Hill to find an odd job and worked eight hours cleaning up a property. He was paid with a peanut butter sandwich. The man walked back to the library and split it four ways.

As Evans filled her notebook, the next step became obvious.

A Night In Their Shoes

Her new friends tried to talk her out of coming with them, but she wouldn't have it. If she couldn't stay with them, Evans said, she would find some homeless strangers to stay with. "Boy you're stubborn," they replied before agreeing to her experiment.

She had other reasons. Given her own precarious financial situation, Evans believes her chances of becoming homeless are very real.

"I wanted to learn the ropes," she said.

She lasted 19 hours.

Evans was scheduled to meet her guides at 6 p.m. on Monday, but they didn't show. Darkness fell. She grew hungry - and cold. Serious doubts were building when Evans' friends finally turned up. They departed with no clear destination.

All night they kept on the move. Her teeth chattered as she tripped over roots in the dark woods. At one point, they disturbed something big and had to run. Evans still doesn't know what it was, but she almost lost her shoes trying to get away.

Humans pose just as many dangers as the wildlife. Many homeless sleep with one eye open, wary of any rivals or lunatics out to beat their kind to death.

A couple of times they saw cruisers drive slowly by, then pull into a driveway and turn off their headlights. It was unclear whether they were searching for the homeless, "but that was a clue to us to get out of there," she said. "We had already been questioned."

Late that night, they popped into a convenience store to pick up some smokes. Evans visits the same shop every morning and generally chitchats with the clerks. But her company that night changed the clerks' attitude, and they told her to make her purchases and leave.

"Their respect just dropped for me," she said.

The night dragged on. At one point they decided to scatter and, as they fled, an elderly gentleman, probably at least 70, tripped and fell because of his badly swollen knees.

Evans turned back and whispered for help.

He begged them to go on.

"I don't have any more strength. Just let me die, I'm tired of this," Evans recalls the man saying.

Her friends refused and three of them carried him to a safe place for the night. Evans said he is a veteran, but he can't get medical treatment because all of the VA doctors are in Tampa.

A Challenge For Others

Although her excursion was cut short, Evans has taken away lessons she continues to build on. With her limited resources and some donations, Evans and her girlfriend have managed to feed roughly 25 homeless people every day for the past two weeks.

They've managed to wheedle and coax some barely expired food from restaurants and supermarkets that was destined for the Dumpster. But the need is great.

"Just the two of us have managed to do this," Evans said. "Imagine what we could do if more people helped."

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.

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