It was a cold night in December when Roger Hartigan and his two work colleagues, Joe Rich and David Harrison, were out at a Christmas party in Bristol, United Kingdom.
They were having a good time, when all of the sudden, they noticed a lone elderly woman sitting on the street. They decided to stop to speak to her.
“I saw this woman and she looked very fragile,” Roger told the Bristol Post.
The woman’s only belongings were a few plastic bags she used to protect herself from the cold. “She was just so vulnerable — there was no way I could leave her,” Roger said.
That’s when Roger and his friends decided not to leave her out on the street in this freezing cold night. They started talking to her, and while she did not mention her name, she told them she was 71 years old and had been living on the streets for 18 years.
As she had nowhere to go, Roger and his two friends decided to give her some money and some cigarettes, and, additionally, tried to get her a taxi to take her to a hotel. “But none would stop,” Roger said.
But that would not stop this helping trio from making sure she had a roof over her head.
His friends ran ahead to find a hotel with a spare room. “I walked with her through the center of town, carrying her stuff,” Roger said.
He thought she was “a bit shocked at what was happening” when he told her he was going to find her a hotel. They had to reassure her that they were not joking and that they only wanted to make sure she was safe.
They found a hotel that had a free room for the old lady and paid USD $195 so that she could feel the warmth of a cosy bed, have a hot shower — and, after almost two decades, forget about her struggles for just one night.
Just look at this pair and how happy the lady looks when they checked into the hotel. Talk about a Christmas gift!
What a heart-warming story! During this stressful pre-Christmas time and the hunt for the perfect gifts, we should all take the time to look out for the people that might need us the most in this time.
Please like and share this story to honor Roger and his two friends for thinking about a fellow human being in need — and for bringing back the spark into her eyes.
Published by Newsner. Please like.