Nursing Notes: How Come You Never Asked?

Laura, how come you never asked me about Islam?”

I smiled at him. I said because your religion isn’t a factor for me, no one’s deserves to be homeless, especially homeless and blind.

He says to me, “I have been thinking to myself, why is this white Christian woman helping a Muslim black man” he laughs. He then lowers his head and says, “when I came to America, America was asleep. It was a beautiful country, then 9/11 happened and it became so hard for me. ” We sat in silence for less than a minute he turns to me, “Thank you, you are a great communicator and I don’t know how I would ever get here myself. God bless you. ”

Our journey together is not going to be an easy one, we are making small steps every week. Until you have become homeless or ever tried to assist the homeless you will never truly appreciate simple things such as making an appointment with a specialist, getting a pair of glasses, getting unemployment, applying for an apartment….for these people it takes months to obtain any of this. The average individual simply makes a phone call…applies online…gets the information mailed to their house…where does a homeless individual get their mail? What phone number will be called? Who has an email address?

As a nurse I don’t think I have ever felt like such a patient advocate as I do right now in my current career