A thank you 25 years later from a post on X.

[Jacson6]

I just had one of the most surreal and unexpected phone calls of my lifetime...

A man called the number I keep on my resume (the one I list on LinkedIn, etc.) and the conversation goes like this...

Caller: “I'm sure you have no clue who I am… but did you and your wife used to live in Fort Worth in the summer of 1992?”

Me: “Yes, though it was actually with my ex-wife. Why do you ask?”

Caller: “Back then, you gave me your name. You and your family fed me in downtown Fort Worth one afternoon.”

(We used to regularly take food to people living on the streets near the Water Gardens.)

Me: “Oh wow! I’d almost forgotten about those days.”

Caller: “I was 16 then, homeless and using drugs every day. I haven’t touched drugs in 25 years. I’m now a computer tech in New Mexico working at Best Buy.”

Then he paused and simply said:

Caller: “I just wanted to thank you. That day meant the world to me.”

We talked a little longer, and then he hung up. He had tracked me down through LinkedIn, after all these years.

To say it was surreal doesn’t even begin to cover it. Sometimes the seeds you plant decades ago come back in ways you’d never expect.