Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I volunteer for Orange County Jail's "Lights On" project on Saturday nights -- in a RV, from 11PM to 4AM, we provide a safe space for released prisoners until they find a ride home.  Of the many interesting stories I've heard, a particular story of 50 year old prisoner really touched me.

After his last stay in jail, this 50 years old guy was homeless. He did have a family member and a friend that would let him sleep over sometimes, but on this particular night, he decided to come back and hang out with us in the RV.

He told us how he has "anger issues".  He'd got into fights over "petty things", he'd been a small-time burglar, he'd been arrested for being under the influence while driving or being in public places. .  He'd been a small time burglar and had been in and out of incarceration for a lot of his life.  In fact, most of the friends he made were from prison (he'd pray with many of them and become friends that way).  And like that, he was just kind of floating through life.

One day while he was on parole, he was sitting at a bar drinking a beer. All of a sudden, the customers started running out to see some kind of commotion. When he got outside, he saw that there were 2 men beating a woman on top of a hill that was a few blocks away.

Nobody was doing anything but watching.  "I was a little drunk, but then all of a sudden I felt really angry about what I was seeing," he said.  The feeling inside him was so strong that his ears started ringing.  He doesn't remember how he jumped a couple fences and scraped up his hands as he got to where the action was going on, but by the time he realized what was going on, he had chased away one attacker and had another man in a choke hold!

Then, a taxi driver came and pulled a gun on all of them. Fortunately, the lady that was being beaten up was able to tell the taxi driver who the good guy was.  He told the taxi driver that he was on parole and didn't want to be involved at all; the taxi driver didn't say anything and let him run away.  The lady, it turns out, went into a coma for 2 weeks but thankfully, she survived.

Some time later, our prisoner friend actually ran into the lady on the streets, as she was able to say, "Thank you." But, the rescuer said that he didn't think much of it.

A few years later, while being released from another unrelated prison stay, he became friends with a man that he was released with. Later, he figured out that his new friend was the brother of the lady that was attacked.  After it was explained that his sister was saved by this new friend, the brother said, "Stand Up!". The rescuer was not sure what to do or even if this was a challenge to fight. But as he stood up, he got the biggest hug he had ever experienced!

And he said that's when the "Thank You" from before really sunk in, and he felt it.