She lived on the streets, but she did not beg for money. She was holding a note in her hand and asking people to read it. After 16 years, someone stopped and read the note. Then everything changed. Here’s what it says on paper…
Wanda Ritter lived on the streets for 16 years and each day during that period of time she hoped that someone would take their time to listen to her life story and help her justice to be served.
As she stood on the street, she carried a suitcase filled with a bunch of documents and checks she never cashed. This woman claimed that the government owed her a huge sum of money, $100,000 to be exact, but no one believed her. What’s most, people considered her a lunatic and no one believed her story.
One day, a woman named Julie Turner, a 56-year-old social worker, heard Wanda’s plea and decided to take a closer look at all those papers she carried with her every single day. To her surprise, Wanda was telling the truth. She wasn’t mentally ill as most passersby believed.
It turned out that Wanda was receiving checks raging from $300 to $900 each months but she never cashed them because she suspected something was amiss. Instead, she returned them, fearing that cashing them would only lead to more complications.
Julie was determined to make things right for Wanda and help her stand on her feet again. Armed with determination, the two managed to navigate the complexities of bureaucracy and correct the oversight.
Eventually, Wanda received her first paycheck for $1,644 from Social Security and it was the first step towards correction of the injustice she suffered over the years.
This story serves as a reminder that we should never lose faith in humanity because among all those people who don’t care, there always be someone as Julie who would take their time to listen and lend a helping hand and make our world better.
