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Submitted by Anonymously Larry on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 7:40am.

I offered a new Olyblogger a cup of coffee.  It was really a whimsical gesture for her efforts and yet it brought back a great memory I'd like to share.

I was in Portland for business and had a hour or so to blow before a networking meeting, so I decided to hit one of the downtown coffee spots for an injection.

It was a beautiful day and decided to take the coffee out to the street tables, where I came upon a man enjoying his coffee and a fine cigar.  Since I don't really smoke them anylonger (since my heart attack) I asked if I could sit by him and enjoy his enjoyment.  He invited me to sit and we began to talk.

It turned out that he had lost his wife in the past few years, thus was on his own, as his daughter was an attorney in another city.  He had made his money with 11 McDonald's franchises and sold them back to corporate.  He was now enjoying the sunset of his life with a female companion that called during our conversation (he put her off in lieu of talking to me).  We sat there in the sun and talked for about an hour.  I asked where the Elephant Deli was, told him why I was going there, he gave me great directions and said to say hi to several people (I was going to an event planners meeting).

We both set out walking down the street to our cars.  We came upon a shop and he invited me to come in.  The shop keepers recognized in and he said "you know what I want" and waited.  They came back with a carton of fine chocolates that he handed to me and said "take these home to your wife and tell her how much you love her and missed her while you were gone".  Obviously, "no thanks" was not going to work.

I'm not sure why he made that gesture, but I know I sure enjoyed my conversation with that gentleman and often wonder how he's doing.

Maybe I need to go to Portland for a cup of coffee.

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Beautiful story

This is a beautiful story.
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Whimsical?

Is that what that offer was? Whimsical? Well, knowing that your offer was less than sincere, I am just tempted to take you up on it. Oh, and I plan to order a quadruple mocha. You know, the $6.00 drink.
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Hit me with your best four shots

I'm not sure that whimsical is synonymous with insincere.

"There is only one race, the human race" - The Neville Brothers

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Pushing this up

I'm going to post, strictly to get this back up on higher on the roster and to make a point linked into another blog, about the Homeless in Downtown. How would I have known that this man was homeless or a millionaire? A person could be without a home, wearing his best casual outfit left and smoking his last fine cigar while drinking a cup of coffee with his last couple of bucks. I found out all this man's successes by having a conversation with him. I think we'd all be wise to coverse more and judge less.

"There is only one race, the human race" - The Neville Brothers

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You never know

what will turn up at a shared table. Nice story Larry.
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