Note: we are republishing this story, which originally made the news in December 2016.
Cary Fischer was at Dunkin Donuts near campus to get her morning coffee when she saw a homeless man sitting on the side of the road picking up spare change that people had dropped. He strolled into the coffee shop, unaware that Cary was watching him. She watched him counting his change and decided to chat to him.
“I began to get super annoying and talked to him over and over again even when he didn’t really want to talk,” Casey said. “Since he had maybe $1 in change I bought him a coffee and bagel and asked him to sit down with me.”
Photo Credit: Facebook/Casey Fischer
The two sat down and started talking over the small breakfast, with Chris telling her his life story and admitting his mistakes, which got him where he was.
“He told me a lot about how people are usually very mean to him because he’s homeless, how drugs turned him into the person he hated, he lost his mom to cancer, he never knew his dad and he just wants to be someone his mom would be proud of,” Casey posted on Facebook, detailing the hour-long conversation she had with him.
Photo Credit: Facebook/Casey Fischer
“Chris was one of the most honest & sincere people I’ve ever met,” she wrote. She had to get to class, so she bid him goodbye.
“After realizing I really need to get back to class, Chris asked me to wait so he can write something down for me,” she wrote. “Handing me a crumpled up receipt, he apologized for having shaky hand writing, smiled, and left.”
Photo Credit: Facebook/Casey Fischer
The post was accompanied by a photo of the crumpled note, which read: “I wanted to kill myself today, because of u I now do not. Thank u, beautiful person.” Casey was shocked by the words, but felt thankful that her simple act of kindness had saved someone’s life.
Her post racked up hundreds of thousands of shares, with people hailing her for her kindness.