ちょっとした思いやりがきっかけで、今まで知らなかったような気持ちを経験することがある。
アメリカ・カリフォルニア州のアナハイムに住んでいるカルメン・メンデスさんは、レストランで食事をしている最中、店内にホームレスの女性がいることに気が付いた。女性は残り物を恵んでくれるようにお願いしながら歩き回っていた。
しかし、女性に食べ物をわけ与えようとした人は誰もいなかったそうだ。「とても胸が痛みました」と、メンデスさんは書いている。
ホームレスの女性は一度レストランを去ったが、メンデスさんが食事を終えた直後に戻ってきた。残り物のチキンとフライドポテトを提供したが、何か違うように感じたという。
「残り物の食事をあげるなんて、私はなんて無礼な人間なんだろう。彼女は残り物よりもっといい食事を受けるに値するはずだと思いました」
そこでメンデスさんは彼女の分の食事を注文し、女性を追い出さないように店員にお願いした。女性はメンデスさんを抱きしめて感謝の気持ちを表した。それはメンデスさんを心の底から感動させるようなハグだった。
彼女はFacebookにこう書いている「彼女の表情は純粋そのもので、心からの感謝にあふれていました。こんな気持ちになったのは生まれて初めてです。今までにこんな風にハグされたことはありません。彼女の流した涙が心の奥まで伝わってくるようでした」
メンデスさんのFacebookには、多くの人たちが温かいコメントを投稿している。
一生忘れることのない瞬間だったと言う彼女は、次のようにコメントしている。
「今度ホームレスの人を見かけた時、どうか非難しないで思いやりの気持ちを持って接してみて下さい」
この記事はハフポストUS版に掲載されたものを翻訳しました。
ホームレスだったことがあるセレブ
Kelly Clarkson(01 of18)
Before getting her big break on \"American Idol,\" Clarkson lived out of her car after her LA apartment burned down. She allegedly showered daily at a health club where she had a membership. (credit:Getty)
Halle Berry(02 of18)
Berry lived in homeless shelters at the age of 21 after she tried to pursue a Hollywood career, despite her mom\'s disapproval. \"After a month or two, I ran out of money and called her. I said, `Mom, I hate to ask you this, but could you send me some money? I just have rent money. I can\'t eat this week,\" she said in 2007. And she said, I\'m not going to start this calling home asking Mom for money. No. Figure it out or come home.\' I was so mad. I didn\'t speak to her for a year and a half.\" (credit:Getty)
Hilary Swank(03 of18)
Swank grew up in a trailer park in Bellingham, Wash., before heading to Los Angeles with her mom at the age of 15 to pursue an acting career. The pair lived out of a car, booking auditions over payphones before Swank finally landed some small gigs. She tells CBS, \"[My mom] was at a crossroads. My father and her were getting separated, and she said, \'Let\'s go to California.\' And so $75, and a Mobil card, we drove down to California.\" (credit:Getty)
Jewel(04 of18)
Jewel lived a hard life before making it big almost two decades ago. The singer\'s family was poor and lived in a house with no indoor plumbing. She confessed to writing songs while living in a van. \"It was really hard for me to ever think that I was special when I was homeless,\" she told CNN in a recent interview. \"I was writing things, I was writing songs, but I didn\'t think that they were that good. The fact that someone believed in me or thought that my life was special meant a lot to me, because I didn\'t know how to value it.”\n (credit:Getty)
Jim Carrey(05 of18)
Carrey lived in a van with his family. He told \"Inside the Actor\'s Studio,\" \"My father was a musician who got a \'regular job\' to support his children. When he lost his job that\'s when everything fell apart. We went from \'lower middle class\' to \'poor\'. We were living out of a van. I quit school at age 15 to begin working to help support my family as a janitor. I\'d have a baseball bat on my janitor cart because I was so angry I just wanted to beat the heck out of something.\" (credit:Getty)
Lil' Kim(06 of18)
Before she made it in Hollywood, Lil’ Kim was just getting by in Brooklyn, NY. Her father kicked her out as a teenager, and for a while, Kim was homeless. During her struggle, she met The Notorious B.I.G., who helped her go from a couch-surfing girl to Grammy-winning performer. (credit:Getty)
William Shatner(07 of18)
Shatner lived out of his pickup truck following the ending of \"Star Trek.\" He told Details magazine, \"It was the early 1970s and I was recently divorced. I had three kids and was totally broke. I managed to find work back east on the straw-hat circuit—summer stock—but couldn’t afford hotels, so I lived out of the back of my truck, under a hard shell. It had a little stove, a toilet, and I’d drive from theater to theater. The only comfort came from my dog, who sat in the passenger seat and gave me perspective on everything. Otherwise, it would have just been me counting my losses.\" (credit:Getty)
David Letterman(08 of18)
Before making it big, Letterman lived out of a red 1973 Chevy pickup truck. (credit:Getty)
Jennifer Lopez(09 of18)
J.Lo couch-surfed at the age of 18 after her parents disagreed with her decision to pursue a career in Hollywood. \n\n“My mom and I butted heads,” Lopez tells W. “I didn’t want to go to college -- I wanted to try dance full-time. So she and I had a break. I started sleeping on the sofa in the dance studio. I was homeless, but I told her, ‘This is what I have to do.’ A few months later, I landed a job dancing in Europe. When I got back, I booked \'In Living Color.\' I became a Fly Girl and moved to L.A. It all happened in a year.” (credit:Getty)
Sam Worthington(10 of18)
“I was living in a car before I signed up for Avatar,” the Australian actor confessed. (credit:Getty)
Tyler Perry(11 of18)
The actor and director lived in his car after one of his projects flopped in Atlanta. (credit:Getty)
Sean Parker(12 of18)
In an interview with Jimmy Fallon, Parker said that he could \"easily have been a one hit wonder and drifted off into obscurity,\" after Napster, but instead forged on, trying to build a consumer product. Until the PayPal IPO in 2002, Parker was forced to live a vagrant sort of life, \"sleeping on couches,\" and setting up rules \"about how long I\'d freeload off of any one individual.\" (credit:Getty)
Shania Twain(13 of18)
Shania Twain\'s parents had a tumultuous relationship that was only worsened by the family\'s lack of income. In 1979, Twain\'s mother reportedly rounded up her four children and drove more than 400 miles to a Toronto homeless shelter. She was 14 at the time. (credit:Getty)
Sylvester Stallone(14 of18)
The actor spent three weeks sleeping in New York City\'s Port Authority bus station after being evicted from his apartment. Out of desperation, Stallone took a role in an adult film, which paid $200 and helped him get back on his feet. (credit:Getty)
Carmen Electra(15 of18)
\"You know, I had a couple of years of being homeless in Hollywood,\" Electra told the Review Journal. \"A lot of people don\'t even know this.\"\n\nShe was in her early 20s when her boyfriend stole all of her savings and left her stranded. \"I remember sitting on a park bench in the valley,\" she says. \"I was crying because I was stranded. It was over 100 degrees outside.\" (credit:Getty)
Djimon Hounsou(16 of18)
In the early 1980s, when he was in his teens, the African-born future model and actor was a homeless youth in Paris. \"I lived on the streets for some time -- fighting for survival, searching out nothing more than my daily necessities for a meager existence,\" Hounsou told a U.S. Senate panel in 2008, according to People. (credit:Getty)
Dr. Phil McGraw (17 of18)
\"I was homeless living in a car with my dad,\" McGraw reportedly told the Globe in 2009. \"We eventually got a room at the downtown YMCA for five bucks a week.\" (credit:Getty)
Drew Carey(18 of18)
Carey lived out of his car for 18 months while trying to earn a spot on \"The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.\" (credit:Getty Images)
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