My Pink Dress—A lesson on giving

I have spent forty years in mental health.  Today, I remembered my pink gingham dress.

One day I was walking down the halls of a mental hospital.  A large white female walked up to me and asked, “Social Worker, will you bring me some clothes?”  I looked at her.  she made three or four of me in size.  How did she think she could wear my clothing, I thought. We routinely gave patients clothing on discharge from the clothing room if they did not have two changes of clothing.  She was asking me to bring her my clothing.

I went home and found a pink gingham dress that I had bought in my fat day and never worn.  It still had the price tag on it. I took this dress to her with a bra and five pairs of white cotton panties.  I could have given her some more clothes but I had never donated clothes to anyone before at the hospital and staff gossip so much.

I took the clothing to her.  She was so happy to have a new dress.  She wore it once and told me that she was saving it to take home. Six or seven months later, I saw her walking the streets in Highland Park, Michigan.  She was wearing the pink dress and you could barely distinguish the color.  I wanted to cry.  I wondered how long she had been wearing that dress.  It was so dirty.  It looked like she had not taken it off since she left the hospital.  I could have given her more clothing to meet her need.  I was so into an ego thing of not wanting the staff to talk about what I brought her that I only took her the new clothing.  I could have taken her more.  Her need was clothing.  I could have meet that need but for my own ego.

I learned a lesson in giving that day.  Try to meet the need presented.  Pay it forward and you will never go wrong.  I think my southern interactions with whites colored my normal giving behavior and kindness to another human in need.  I would never allow that to happen again. Jesus loves us all and all of his children are too precious to lose.  God does not see color. Try to meet the need presented to you at the time.  Do not worry about what others may think. Just pay it forward.