Walking Man

I see him often as I walk up the San Francisco hills, up Powell from Market or up California from Montgomery.  He is always walking, carrying that blanket.  He could be 10 years younger than me, the same age (86) or ten years older.  His back is not straight.

Is he homeless?  I’ve never seen him in a doorway or lying on the street.  He just walks and walks.

Yesterday I was walking up Powell and he was walking down.  As we passed I said Hello, loudly and cheerily as I reasonably could.  I think he raised his head about ¼”, but it was probably my imagination.

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I met Dana and Gary Shapiro soon after we moved into our apartment.  After getting to know Gary a bit, I was impressed with his optimistic view of life.  To Gary the glass wasn’t just half full, it was close to the top.

Last summer the horrible Sonoma Fire demolished  Gary and Dana’s house.  I called Gary.  He said something like “Sure it’s bad, but we still have our health, each other and our lives….. and also the guest house, which the fire didn’t get”

A while back doctors found cancer in Gary’s stomach.  On Wednesday they took his stomach away in an operation that was supposed to take 2 hours but took 5.  So far I understand he’s doing well, considering everything.

I don’t know what effect no stomach will have on Gary’s lifestyle.  I do know that he will come out of it saying “Well, that’s not so great,  but I still have……………..”

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We relish TV shows about British detectives – Morse, Lewis, Endeavor, Vera – the whole bloody lot, and just found one on Amazon that’s 5 years old, but new to us, well done: The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher