Backpack With Wings: A Beautiful Story of Today

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We went to the bank and had a twenty dollar bill. I had the weirdest feeling that I was being led to somebody specific. This feeling kept intensifying almost driving me crazy. I kept feeling I would run into an older lady. I saw an older lady sitting at a bus stop talking to God as I was in the turning lane where you could hear her. I drove past her and I ran into this gentleman. I said this is where I’m supposed to stop he was sitting in a vacant parking lot next to St Ignatius Church. He is sitting there with a bike and a backpack. I grabbed a tent and the $20. As I walked up to him I realized he was painting. He looked up at me thankful for the tent then looked at me, looked at the painting, and looked back at me kinda in disbelief. I called Jay out to come see it. He said what the guy was thinking and I was thinking, he said that looks like you. I ran back home and grabbed paint and a canvas I had. We brought it to him. The man cried multiple times. Jay told the man I hadn’t been feeling well. The man prayed for me. I will never forget what he said. I have been feeling a lot of weight on my shoulders. He said mid-prayer multiple times to take off the heavy backpack take the weight to let go of the stress. Some of you have seen the graphic I made a while ago for when our unhoused die. It is a backpack with wings. Something about what he said was so deep and had so much meaning I’m forever grateful.

Photos by Jay of the Sacramento Homeless Union
Photos by Jay of the Sacramento Homeless Union
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Crystal Sanchez is with the Sacramento Homeless Union.

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