I recently went to the laundromat with my mother. She had so much laundry to do that she would rather leave the house and go to the laundromat where there are bigger machines to use.

My mother, my one year old brother, and I walked in the laundromat. It was very crowded as I assume it would be on a Saturday morning. I saw two little girls holding a leash to a big pitbull, a lady talking to herself, and a little boy running around.

I sit on the bench with my little brother, a young woman walks in with her little daughter accompanied by a gust of cigarette smoke. I inevitably start coughing and get up from the bench as I do not want my baby brother to inhale the smoke. As I’m walking away, I hear the woman yell at me “Oh hell no!!!” I look back and I see her exit the laundromat and approach the window where I am at. At this point I am by my mother. I hear her furiously scream and cussing at me, saying, “Do you want to come outside right now? I will beat you right now. You better not come out with that baby..” (this is the censored version of what she said) My mother looks at me perplexed and asks me what I did to her. I immediately defend myself knowing I did absolutely nothing wrong.

I’m thinking to myself, did I offend her in some way?  Did my coughing bother her? I was beyond confused. She would later approach us face to face and start screaming at me again. In her rant she would reveal to me that she was homeless.

I was completely shocked. I greatly sympathized for her especially since she has a little daughter to take care of. I hope she finds the help she needs, no one can progress in life if they are angry at the world. Being homeless shapes how you perceive life and how you interact with others. It’s a sad reality that many who are homeless  have anger or mental problems they have to face everyday. The woman I met was no exception. How can they help themselves..