Thanksgiving is all about being thankful for the things you have. For one man, being thankful for the things he had was tough considering he had literally nothing to his name.
Mack Simmons is a DC resident that has been through a bit of a tough time recently.
Simmons was in the hospital after spending months living homeless on the streets of Washington DC. This time last year, Simmons was walking around in the freezing cold with his son.
”I had to use a cane. I could only walk a few feet before my legs would give out on me … I would take ten steps, and it felt like I ran a marathon,” Simmons said.
To make matters worse, he had his son with him – the two were sleeping in the car together with almost nothing to their name.
Thankfully, Simmons had a friend reach out to him to check up. When his friend realized the situation, he was shocked.,
”He said, ‘what you are homeless?’ I said, ‘yeah, me and my son spent the night in my car,’”
After that call, Simmons knew that he had to make a change. If was going to be healthy to be there for his son, something needed to happen and it needed to happen fast.
After making the decision to move, things got WAY worse.
On February 5th, his whole body seized up. He was unable to move and was stranded. With a quick call, he was admitted to UPMC McKeesport where they took a look at him. It wasn’t good news:
”It looks like you have a blockage in your aorta. I said, what does that mean? She said simply that means there is no blood going to your legs,”
Simmons would then spend the next few months flipping between being homeless and being in the hospital.
But, there was good news on the horizon. Simmons ended up befriending the hospital staff. They would always look out for him and do whatever they could to help. That culminated in them getting him into a homeless shelter in June of that year, and eventually a permanent home in October.
Finally, for Thanksgiving this year, the hospital staff did the unthinkable.
Instead of just “some” home, they got him his very own place! The staff was clear that they had come too far to have him back at a homeless shelter!
“They said we put way too much work into you to have you go back to a place like that,” Simmons said.
With how much he had been through, the staff knew that he deserved it more than anyone.
“They said we put way too much work into you to have you go back to a place like that,” Simmons said.
This Thanksgiving was probably the best one that Simmons has ever had!
A warm home, a meal, and his family and friends around. That sounds exactly like what Thanksgiving is all about. For Simmons, it was more than he could ever hope for.
“I am just all smiles today. They taught me that anything is possible … to come here and to just have everything turn around for me the way that it has … it’s amazing,” Simmons said.
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