An Unexpected Guest

A landlord became homelessness. I did not believe it until I saw him this week. His name is Brian, and he co-owns the house that I am living in with the other landlord, Andy. Usually, I do business with Andy most of the time last year. So I do not think I have a chance to meet the other landlord until he moved all the way down from Syracuse, New York to Tucson, Arizona a day before Thanksgiving this week. I learned that he lost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the housing market because his bad investment or due to the economic recession. Brian and his friend drove all the way from Syracuse to Tucson with two fully loaded trucks. He packed pretty much all his stuff from his old home in New York in order to settle down a new home in Tucson, Arizona. He told me he bought a new house already, but he cannot move in immediately since there are still some paper work needs to be done.

I never felt so crowded in my back yard before since two big Ford trucks and an eight feet tall trailer are standing in it. He does not have friends to lend him a place to live in for a couple weeks nor is he willing to spend money on living in motel. He has been living in my back yard for two days so far, and he spent most his time in sitting there with his three wolfhounds or slept in his truck at night. I have no idea how long he is going to stay outside of my place. He is homeless now, even though he is homeless temporally. I learned that countless people lost their homes or jobs on television and newspaper due to financial crisis these years. They were victims of this invisible disaster. I still cannot believe that I witness my landlord is suffering from it. Hopefully, he will move in his new place soon.

He did not look good when I met him for the first time because he wore dirty clothes and pants with dust and dog hair on them. Life is not easy for this single old man, especially he is suffering from the pain of lost home and he has no place to live in so far. Nights are cold. Do you think physical cold is worse than the cold at the bottom of his heart? I do not think so. . I can tell he is talkative and optimistic from our conversation, even though he is dealing with such a bad situation at the moment. Brian does not marry, so he has to face all the difficulties by himself. I did not know how his Thanksgiving was, but one thing I can sure is that it was a painful holiday for him. No family members or friends stayed with him on that night, but his dogs. I can hear that he often talk with his dogs, and dogs had become his closest friends so that he would not felt so lonely on the particular holiday.