A Transformative Encounter: From Snapping to Tears on the Street

In 2012, Laura Eshelman, battling a mental health crisis after a tough breakup and job rejections, encountered a man seeking help on a street corner. Initially, she responded harshly, saying, “Leave me alone. I don’t have anything to give you.” Later, struck by her own unkindness, Eshelman rushed back to apologize.

“I couldn’t put my finger on it until the realization of how rude I had been hit me like an anvil,” she recalled. Outside the grocery store, she found the man and apologized, offering him change buried in her pocket. His response was unexpected: “It’s gonna be OK.” Holding her hand, he provided comfort, and Eshelman, for the first time in a while, felt seen.

Reflecting on that brief encounter, Eshelman expressed, “If he were here right now, I would love to tell him that that moment on the street was one of the few glimmers in that extremely dark period of my life.”