Just When You Think You Are a Lousy Parent

My kids like Subway. We go there about once a week on a day when cooking is not realistic, like a day when we have tennis and baseball, or riding and baseball...or any other number of ridiculous things that make me say WHAT am I doing.....

OK, on to the point of this...we stopped in to Subway this week and there was this man in the parking lot, he was on a bike, he had stuff in his bike basket and he was dirty and clearly homeless. As we approached the Subway my daughter saw he had a dog, an obviously well cared for dog, she is a pet freak and of course ran up and talked to him and played with his dog, he was delighted. He told me my daughter was a gift from God. My cynical usually mean son, said as we went into the restaurant, "mom, can we get him something." I said sure, go see what he would like, next thing I know, my two beautiful children are leading this man into the restaurant and have invited him to have dinner with us.

We ordered, he ordered, my son gave him advice on the Subway menu, and the four of us sat down and ate. I learned that he was in Desert Storm...(so was my brother) that his brother died and his mother died and he was truly a lost soul. I thought to myself....there but for the grace of God go I.

When we left he thanked me for sharing my children with him, I thanked him for having dinner with us. My wonderful children talked about him all the way home, they want to go back and have dinner with him again, so when I wonder if I am teaching them anything, I realize they are really teaching me.

By the way, his name is Mark and he rides his bike around 44 at the Walmart. If you see him he likes the turkey sub.