04/16/2025
**HE BROUGHT HIS OWN CAKE TO THE BUS STOP—JUST IN CASE SOMEONE CARED**
I noticed him the moment I turned the corner—an older man sitting at the bus shelter with a tiny round cake in his lap, candles lit and flickering in the morning breeze. No bag, no groceries, no signs of going anywhere. Just… waiting.
I almost walked past. Thought maybe he was meeting someone. But something about how still he was made me stop.
He didn’t look up right away. Just kept staring at the cake like it might tell him something he didn’t already know.
I asked gently, “Waiting for someone?”
He smiled, but not really. “No, not exactly,” he said. “I just didn’t want to sit inside all day. Figured maybe out here, someone might wish me happy birthday.”
He told me he was turning 87. Said his daughter moved out of state. Said the neighbors used to check in, but they’ve “got their own lives now.” He bought the cake himself from the corner store. The cashier didn’t even ask what it was for.
“I lit the candles ‘cause it felt strange not to,” he added.
I sat down next to him. Told him I was glad he didn’t stay home. And that 87 looked good on him.
He chuckled softly and said, “You’re the first person I’ve talked to all day.”
Then he motioned to the second plastic fork he had tucked in his jacket pocket and asked—
👇
(continue reading in the first cᴑmment)
