Tuesday, October 05, 2004
N went to bring some food to someone who is poor and living by himself. It is purely coincidental that my family knows an elderly guy who is in the same situation as well. He lives in a dingy neighborhood the government probably has forgotten during the elections campaigns. After his brother had passed away, he lives alone and does not leave the rented one-room flat, depending on his relatives (or us) to bring him food and groceries from time to time. Incredibly he manages to keep his tiny apartment spanking clean, not an easy task for one who is blind.
What I remember most from all the visits when I was a kid, was the huge b/w family portrait hung on one of the walls, of a wealthy partriach, his two wives and children, so quaint it could easily belong to a museum collection. I was so intrigued by this very portrait that tells of the rich family this man was born into and how one of the wives had gambled the family fortunes away, causing the family to fall into poverty. An unfortunate industrial accident later left him blind. Sounding very much like a soap opera storyline, the fact remains that it wasn't. This is his life. The last time we went to visit, the portrait had disappeared, supposedly removed by one of his relatives who'd came to visit. All that is left, the uncomfortably blank wall on which its frame once hung upon.
What I remember most from all the visits when I was a kid, was the huge b/w family portrait hung on one of the walls, of a wealthy partriach, his two wives and children, so quaint it could easily belong to a museum collection. I was so intrigued by this very portrait that tells of the rich family this man was born into and how one of the wives had gambled the family fortunes away, causing the family to fall into poverty. An unfortunate industrial accident later left him blind. Sounding very much like a soap opera storyline, the fact remains that it wasn't. This is his life. The last time we went to visit, the portrait had disappeared, supposedly removed by one of his relatives who'd came to visit. All that is left, the uncomfortably blank wall on which its frame once hung upon.
