A man stopped by my house today. He had a rake in his hand. He told me about his children and himself.

He said they hadn’t eaten in two days. One child is diabetic. They are living in their van. Could he possibly work for some money?

I told him I don’t have any money. I would be glad to make some homemade soup, like I do for my own family. I went over the ingredients I put in my soups—vegetables, sea salt, bouillon, onion powder, garlic powder and rice. I asked whether those ingredients would work okay for a diabetic. He said sure. Promising to be back in an hour and a half, he left.

I made the soup and put it in containers. I found some canned chicken I had been saving, and added that to the mix. Looking around, I found some cookies made without refined sugar. Those would be nice for the kids, I thought. My kids kept coming into the kitchen, looking at the soup with hungry eyes. I explained that so many people have helped us through the years, it’s sometimes good to give instead of taking.

Then I rested. Ever since the car accident, I can’t stand up for very long, and cooking for an hour causes quite a bit of pain.

The man never came back for the soup.

Maybe when he heard the word “soup”, he thought of the bland stuff that comes in cans. Maybe he found someone who had cash on hand.

I don’t know. I hope he got something to eat.