Some people seem to have bad luck follow them around.

oscash

oscash

Senior Member
Location
Sydney - Australia
I was in a coffee shop with a friend today when a young lady with a small child in a pram sat down next to us. A friendly conversation began, and I asked her the name of the baby and old she was. She told me the name was Hanna and she was 16 months old and was expecting another boy in 6 weeks' time. She said she had another 4 children at home being looked after by parents-in-law. She then went on to tell us their home got burnt down 3 months ago without insurance.
She said she was Turkish/Lebanese. I asked her if she was getting any help from her community, and she said some had helped. The government don't seem to help much.
I asked her if her mother could help and she said, "My mother died 3 months ago after having a bowel operation and complications set in". The family in Turkey want to take the body back home to Turkey to give her decent burial. What a terrible situation for her at this time in life. You hear of these multi rich people spending their money on cosmetic surgery, the latest fashions and it's all about Me,Me,Me. Someone in Queensland just won one hundred million dollars in a lottery. I said to her
if I had plenty of money I would give you enough to help out. She then left us as the baby was starting to cry. I can't stop thinking about her .
 

That is very true. Some people do seem predisposed to have one negative experience after another. My father was that way. He would always arrive home, pause dramatically in front of the door in a brief silence after arrival, causing my mother to ask: "What's wrong Hipolito?" Whereupon he would finally say: "Would you believe...?" before slowly describing where and how he had been victimized. I clearly remember one where he described how he had arrived at a place seeking employment and the owner of the establishment had responded by suddenly kicking him in one of his shins.

Finally, my mother, who had been his captive audience for years, couldn't take it any longer and suddenly demanded that he stop uttering the expression "Would you believe?" unless he was going report something positive. He looked astonished at her demand and stopped momentarily. Then resumed by sneaking his stories in later during the day.
 

Radrook said:
That is very true. Some people do seem predisposed to have one negative experience after another. My father was that way. He would always arrive home, pause dramatically in front of the door in a brief silence after arrival, causing my mother to ask: "What's wrong Hipolito?" Whereupon he would finally say: "Would you believe...?" before slowly describing where and how he had been victimized. I clearly remember one where he described how he had arrived at a place seeking employment and the owner of the establishment had responded by suddenly kicking him in one of his shins.

Finally, my mother, who had been his captive audience for years, couldn't take it any longer and suddenly demanded that he stop uttering the expression "Would you believe?" unless he was going report something positive. He looked astonished at her demand and stopped momentarily. Then resumed by sneaking his stories in later during the day.
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My mother suffered life-long bad luck . My maternal grandmother was the queen of good luck. Needless to say, I watch my 'luck gauge' carefully. Some days, when you just can't win, it's best to go to bed and pull the covers over your head, and don't peek. But on a lucky day I look for a poker game, I'm hell in a poker game.
 
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Capt Lightning said:
Life is full of random and unpredictable events. I believe it's how you react to them that constitutes 'luck'.
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True, the way that we choose to react to certain extremely unpleasant events can indeed determine whether their ultimate effect will be positive or negative. One very poignant example is how the unpleasant experience of the crucifixion that Jesus underwent proved to be a blessing for mankind because of the way that Jesus decided to handled it.
 
You have a soft heart @oscash Here are 2 cautionary tales that happened to me: I was in the grocery store parking lot and a woman approached me saying she was being evicted tomorrow and only needed $20 to add to her rent in order to keep her apartment.
I gave her $20. Next day I returned to the grocery store and there she was asking 3 others for money in the parking lot.

One night while visiting the Asheville Brewery District, not to drink but just to experience free live outdoor music everywhere. A man approached and asked if he could have money for breakfast. I gave him all I had in my purse which was $5. Next day, the same man was across the street drinking at a sidewalk pub. He ran out to me. I walked away with my dogs as if not to hear him. He started yelling profanities.
 
Lara said:
You have a soft heart @oscash Here are 2 cautionary tales that happened to me: I was in the grocery store parking lot and a woman approached me saying she was being evicted tomorrow and only needed $20 to add to her rent in order to keep her apartment.
I gave her $20. Next day I returned to the grocery store and there she was asking 3 others for money in the parking lot.

One night while visiting the Asheville Brewery District, not to drink but just to experience free live outdoor music everywhere. A man approached and asked if he could have money for breakfast. I gave him all I had in my purse which was $5. Next day, the same man was across the street drinking at a sidewalk pub. He ran out to me. I walked away with my dogs as if not to hear him. He started yelling profanities.
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I had similar experiences with panhandlers.
Careful with Panhandlers! | Varietygalore
 
Lara said:
Here are 2 cautionary tales that happened to me: I was in the grocery store parking lot and a woman approached me saying she was being evicted tomorrow and only needed $20 to add to her rent in order to keep her apartment. I gave her $20. Next day I returned to the grocery store and there she was asking 3 others for money in the parking lot.
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Good post, @Lara ... and important to remember. People (sadly) do sometimes go around with prefabricated sob stories and hit up one person after another. I've seen it, too. Sometimes they go a little overboard and their stories are so over the top that it's not believable. I think the sob stories looking for handouts is a step up from when panhandlers used to just sit down with a "collection plate" on the sidewalks... at least that way everyone knew what was going on.
 
I was getting gas in my car, when a man came over telling me that he was from "out of town", and his car ran out of gas, down the road. I can't remember if I gave him anything .. however, not too long after, at another gas station, the same guy with the same story showed up when I stopped to gas up. As he approached me, I said "look at my face - and don't forget it. Also, don't ever approach me again." He got this scared look in his eyes, and took off so fast.
 
Lara said:
You have a soft heart @oscash Here are 2 cautionary tales that happened to me: I was in the grocery store parking lot and a woman approached me saying she was being evicted tomorrow and only needed $20 to add to her rent in order to keep her apartment.
I gave her $20. Next day I returned to the grocery store and there she was asking 3 others for money in the parking lot.

One night while visiting the Asheville Brewery District, not to drink but just to experience free live outdoor music everywhere. A man approached and asked if he could have money for breakfast. I gave him all I had in my purse which was $5. Next day, the same man was across the street drinking at a sidewalk pub. He ran out to me. I walked away with my dogs as if not to hear him. He started yelling profanities.
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According to a book I read by Malcolm Gladwell, he said that, acc/to studies, panhandling tends to be the precursor to robbery in what eventually become bad areas.
 
eii said:

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If a person came up to me, and asked for money to buy a meal, I would either buy a meal to give them, or give them a few dollars. What this man was doing, was scamming people.
 
Aunt Bea said:
Some folks seem to have more than their share of bad luck and sometimes bad luck is a simple case of poor choices.
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I've made my share of poor choices in life and "bad luck followed me around" here and there. But God must be watching out over me because I'm doing well now and I wake up grateful every day. The sun does come up.

I mean, yeah, some things happen that are just the good and evil of the world but for the big picture, I'm surprised my children and I made it and we're all happy. Well, there is "that one thing"....there's always "that one thing". It's okay. It keeps us grounded.
 
Aunt Bea said:
I help folks when I believe that it will help and I take a pass on others where I believe it wonā€™t.

Some folks seem to have more than their share of bad luck and sometimes bad luck is a simple case of poor choices.
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Very true about choices. For example, in the film Life, one of the crewmembers decides to break quarantine protocol to help a fellow crewmember and finds himself locked in the lab with a creature who dives down his throat and kills him.

 
Pinky said:
I was getting gas in my car, when a man came over telling me that he was from "out of town", and his car ran out of gas, down the road. I can't remember if I gave him anything .. however, not too long after, at another gas station, the same guy with the same story showed up when I stopped to gas up. As he approached me, I said "look at my face - and don't forget it. Also, don't ever approach me again." He got this scared look in his eyes, and took off so fast.
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I don't know, Pinky. Some of these able-bodied people are not exactly shining examples of humanity. I've been touched by them, and I've seen them loose their tempers. I always push my palms out and step away from them. I know of two cases in which people have been shot by supposed panhandlers approaching their cars.
Lives have been lost by people who just wanted to tell themselves, "I am a good person." There are safer ways.
 
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Pinky said:
I was getting gas in my car, when a man came over telling me that he was from "out of town", and his car ran out of gas, down the road. I can't remember if I gave him anything .. however, not too long after, at another gas station, the same guy with the same story showed up when I stopped to gas up. As he approached me, I said "look at my face - and don't forget it. Also, don't ever approach me again." He got this scared look in his eyes, and took off so fast.
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That reminds me of this elderly panhandler who would station himself in front of a downtown building cupped hand out asking each passerby for money. I was forced to pass him several times one day within the space of a few minutes, and when I told him that he had already asked me for money each time, he said he didn't remember having asked me. Never saw him there again after that.
 
Radrook said:
That reminds me of this elderly panhandler who would station himself in front of a downtown building cupped hand out asking each passerby for money. I was forced to pass him several times one day within the space of a few minutes, and when I told him that he had already asked me for money each time, he said he didn't remember having asked me. Never saw him there again after that.
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šŸ˜ž We'll we don't know everyone's story. You said he's elderly. Sounds like he had dementia, maybe no friends or family. Lost and hungry. In that case we can do more than drop a little money in his "cupped hands"....like call the Red Cross. They would give him a cot to sleep on, a roof over his head, a blanket, some food, and some free counseling. The Red Cross is a wonderful Organization.

After my husband died, I moved my 4 children (ages 2,4,6,8) and myself from Southern California to the east coast (to be near family which didn't help). I wasn't used to Blizzards. We were snowed in for a week with the 1993 one. Electricity was out at first. I tried to heat soup in the fireplace but quickly found out the smoke gets in it making it unusable. We had little firewood so no heat.

Snow plows came on the upper road but we were down a steep hill. I tried to drive the van out, got half way up and slid down backwards and almost into the pool at the curve. Our 2 birds died...it was so cold. I was scared. Finally the Red Cross came. They offered us a hotel room but I couldn't get out. They came and got us and taught me how to drive in the snow better.
 
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Lara said:
šŸ˜ž We'll we don't know everyone's story. You said he's elderly. Sounds like he had dementia, maybe no friends or family. Lost and hungry. In that case we can do more than drop a little money in his "cupped hands"....like call the Red Cross. They would give him a cot to sleep on, a roof over his head, a blanket, some food, and some free counseling. The Red Cross is a wonderful Organization.

After my husband died, I moved my 4 children and myself from Southern California to the east coast. I wasn't used to Blizzards. We were snowed in for a week. Electricity was out. I tried to heat soup in the fireplace but quickly found out the smoke gets in it making it unusable. We had little firewood so no heat.

Snow plows came on the upper road but we were down a steep hill. I tried to drive the van out, got half way up and slid down backwards and almost into the pool at the curve. Our 2 birds died...it was so cold. I was scared. I finally thought to call the Red Cross. They offered us a hotel room but I couldn't get out. They came and got us and taught me how to drive in the snow better.
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That incident occurred when I was in my late thirties. He seemed old to me then, but could have been in his early fifties. You are right, he could have needed assistance and the humane thing to do was to call someone to help him and properly evaluate his mental condition instead of assuming that he was lazy.

That was a very harrowing experience you had! Similar to those situations featured in certain films that keep the viewers on the edge of their seats. You are lucky that the phone was working.
 
I have often bought food for people asking for money. The man at the service stations hitting on people, was a scammer, using the same story. He was well dressed. His "story" was the same .. he was from out of town, and his car ran out of gas down the road.

Some years ago, there was a young man who was living in a service station. Customers, including myself, would purchase food for him. He looked as though his health was poor. One day, he was gone. I hope he was being taken care of.
 

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