The Drunk

Today and often my mind goes back to the time I first arrived in Germany. What a beautiful, fairytale-like city. Everything was new and exciting. I was just settling into my new life and meeting new people gradually which is so hard when you don’t speak the language. At the time, we were living in an apartment next to the cemetery and in front of the cemetery walls there was a bench. Every afternoon I saw the same old man on that same bench day after day. I always passed him on my bike because it was on my way to the store. I was told by my boyfriend that the man was a harmless drunk. Turns out the man lived in the same complex as I did and I could always hear him and his wife coming home late at night, both blind, stinking drunk and always yelling at each other. I found out that his wife locked him out of the house when she went to work. I felt so sorry for him but figured it must be for a reason. Still, I felt really sorry for him when I passed him one day and he was standing as close as he could to what looked like a little storage unit for the cemetery, taking shelter from the rain. Another day, as I was coming home from work, I saw him staggering home, holding on to the fence so as not to fall on his face. He was walking so slow that he was barely moving. Another time me and my son were riding bikes and he wasn’t watching where he was going. All of a sudden, the man appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. My son slammed on his breaks and he and the man just stared at each other for a minute. The man looked totally unfazed, and zombie-like. I got used to seeing the little old man over time and always wondered what made him like he was. On my way to the store one day, I saw him lying face down in the grass instead sitting on his bench. Naturally startled, I stopped to see if he was still alive, which was hard since there were no signs of life when he was actually standing up. Luckily he was alive. I didn’t roll him over or anything but I would have if necessary. It would had to have been between life and death for me to give him mouth-to-mouth. Once I made sure he was okay I moved on. So about a month passed and I didn’t see him. We asked a neighbor who knew everything about everyone. It turned out someone had found him under his bench and called an ambulance but he was already dead. What an undignified way to go. I found out that he did hold some jobs but once he had a sip of alcohol, it was all over. Now he is buried in the cemetery he used to sit in front of everyday. Shortly after we saw his wife sitting on his bench looking sad. Although I did not know him, I was very sad to hear of his passing. It seemed like such a sad end to a sad life.