I remember the first night we were there, it was sort of late, and we were tired from traveling all day. Since we hadn't had any dinner, we went to a local restaurant that was probably half the size of my dorm room (8x8 maybe). Anyway, I remember this one guy, probably aged in his 40s (50s maybe) who was also ordering food, and I remember he was telling a couple of that he was "a very sick man." I didn't quite understand what he meant, because I know I've been pretty sick a few times in my life. But then a young neighborhood kid who apparently knew him ran in, laughed at him, and then told him he had AIDS. The guy took it gracefully, perhaps knowing that it wouldn't be worth it to shoot a retort at the kid, knowing his own shortness of life.
Several nights later, our evening task involved preparing food and setting up tables for some several impoverished adults in the community, many of them elderly. But for about half an hour before it was time to eat, we were paired up with some of these adults to play some board games with them. I ended up playing chess with a very elderly gentleman. He could barely talk, and I could barely understand him, so verbal communication was sort of out of the equation. Early on in the game he looked feeble in his moves---he would often point at potential spots that he could move certain pieces, especially how far knights could go---and for that I decided to go easy on him. He turned out, however, to be a brilliant strategist, and got me good on a few moves. The game got really intense, especially getting down to the wire, when I started getting back at him with my king. Unfortunately we never got to finish the game because the people that were in charge called us to dinner. I did, however, get a picture of the game with my camera phone, so I do have record of where it ended. Soon afterwards I did talk to some of the hosts about my game and about the guy I played against. I found out he was almost 90 years old, and he did have some ailment that has escaped me since a few seconds after they told me.
These events didn't really hit me right away, but have been growing on me a bit more and more as the months (and years now) have gone by. Sad to think though that both of them might be dead now. It's scary to realize that possibility, knowing that they knew their time was rather limited by the time I crossed paths with them. And maybe as a result of it I may have impacted the last part of their lives simply by listening to or being near them. I'm planning to go down to New Orleans next spring (or maybe Gulfport, MS; I haven't decided). It'll be kind of scary if I have a similar kind of experience again, knowing that I'll run across yet another soul that knows its relatively imminent departure.
...I wonder if the guy who fell down into the subway tracks is still alive. I wonder if he's still on drugs. I remember Cara saying that maybe he realized something had to change and if he would lead a different life. Part of me doubted that, dismissing it as wishful thinking but still hoping for the best.