Soup Kitchen Passenger

“Did someone leave some dirty socks back here?” The question came from a soup kitchen passenger in the back seat of the car I drive.  No, that didn’t happen, but a guest did leave milk in the trunk, which leaked out, spoiled, and left a smell that was hard to get rid of!  I had scrubbed and scrubbed, but still the smell, ooou whee!  When my niece asked to be let of the car several blocks before I got her home, I knew it was time to get more serious about odor control.  I hired “Joe,” a guest of the soup kitchen, and he and I spent three hours together Saturday taking the car apart and finding all the places the milk had oozed to, and we cleaned with ammonia, Murphy Oil Soap, even bleach.  We were both exhausted after that challenge.  So, I gave Joe $50.00 for all his hard work.  Today, I saw him at St. Charles where he went to Mass and then the meal program.  He mentioned that he had put $20.00 in the collection.  He is homeless and unemployed.  I said, “That was beyond tithing,” and he smiled and said, “It’ll come back to me in some way.”  Just when cynicism about some of the guests begins to creep in, I meet a “Joe,” and that straightens me out again! -Br. Bob