17/08/2026
Another random thoughtâŚ
I donât know if Iâm alone in this, but I sometimes find myself wondering about elderly people I see carrying things around or hawking on the streets, especially the men.
My heart breaks when I see them, and I canât help but wonder: What happened? What was their life like when they were younger? Did they once have a thriving business or a good-paying job? Did they lose everything somewhere along the way? Do they have children? If they do, where are they? Are their children struggling too? Did they lose a child? Did they lose a spouse? Or did life simply take one difficult turn after another?
There are so many questions, and we may never know the answers.
I think what gets to me is that these people were once young too. They had dreams, plans, families, ambitions and probably imagined that by this age, they would be resting and enjoying the fruits of their labour.
Yet here they are, still carrying things in the heat and trying to make a living.
And please donât get me wrong. I have a middle-aged mother who still hustles, and I admire her for it. There is absolutely nothing shameful about working at any age. But thereâs something different about seeing someone who is well into old age still having to struggle on the streets just to get through the day.
It makes me wonder how life dealt with them.
Sometimes, we look at people and see only their present circumstances. We rarely know the entire story that brought them there.
Maybe thatâs why I feel such tenderness towards them.
Every elderly person was once somebodyâs young son, daughter, husband, wife, father or mother. They were once full of possibilities too.
Life is humbling. And unpredictable.
May we never become so consumed with our own lives that we stop seeing the humanity in other people.
thoughtsexpressed
