peter
“I was on the way to the internet café where I usually sleep when this guy came up to me. He called me by my name, started talking to me and said he’d met me before. My sight and memory are really bad, so I probably just forgot. He told me he had something for me and handed me a paper bag. Inside it was a belt, jeans, a thermal vest and this jacket, all new. I was very grateful because my clothes were in a bad state at that time, but I wasn’t only grateful because of that. This jacket made me visible. I became a middle-class man. A few days ago a Garda apologised to me for not holding the door for me on the way out. And then another day a lady smiled at me instead of crossing the street. I really feel these things. I can really feel the difference. I was always very emotionally sensitive, and my parents were always stressed which didn’t help either. I find it very hard when people mistreat me. It’s interesting how the mind works. I saw a documentary about misconceptions the other night. They showed ABC letters with a thin gap in the letter B, then they showed three numbers 12, 13, 14, and the number 13 looked exactly the same as the letter B. The same, but different.”
– The photo is for demonstration purposes only. The subject preferred not to have his photo taken.-
