2023-06-04 07:00:57
At a street corner, Nanath had never met anyone. On the sidewalk, he always felt invisible. Who would look at a person who has been homeless for thirty years?
Who would start a dialogue with an old gentleman whose French vocabulary consists of only three barely comprehensible words? That’s what he told himself.
The sexagenarian, born in Croatia, had even accepted the fatality: he will die in indifference at the edge of the road.
At a street corner, Nanath had never met anyone. On the sidewalk, he always felt invisible. Who would look at a person who has been homeless for thirty years?
Who would start a dialogue with an old gentleman whose French vocabulary consists of only three barely comprehensible words? That’s what he told himself.
The sexagenarian, born in Croatia, had even accepted the fatality: he will die in indifference at the edge of the road.
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What he did not know, while wandering the streets of Peymeinade, was that he would cross the path of his “guardian angels”. From Sylvia, Coralie and Virginia and other inhabitants, all too “affected” by his story: following losing his fiancée and his parents in a serious road accident, in which he himself came close to death, he was fired. Tragedies from which he never recovered.
“He found himself homeless and wandered from country to country. He landed in Peymeinade without anyone really knowing why, says a spokesperson for the municipal center for social action (CCAS). He is the only homeless person in town.
Mutual trust
This terrible story, Nanath did not tell it immediately to his new proteges. He who has no “never asked anyone”not even a penny to passers-by, did not let them approach him so easily.
“I didn’t understand why they were interested in me”, he says in impeccable English. Sylvia remembers: the man with translucent eyes “took a while” before giving them “Her confidence”.
“We take turns every day to bring him hot meals, things or keep him company.” Because all are “attached to him”. “He is very sensitive and has a lot of humor.”
“More than a roof to find”
Their generosity has finally exceeded all his hopes: his new friends are no longer content to visit him, they want to find him a new accommodation. “At least for this summer! It would be temporary.”
“We taught him to find a certain autonomy and pay him all his meals and his cigarettes. He only has a roof left to find”, explain Coralie, Virginia and Sylvia. Without hiding their concern.
“For the moment, he is safe but he must go quickly. We cannot put him back on the street. Nobody will support him. We are afraid for him.”
The CCAS, for its part, is working hard. “The Croatian embassy has recognized his identity. Nanath should soon receive his papers. Now we have to make him exist in society by opening up his rights to him.”
Just like Catherine Seguin, first deputy to the city of Peymeinade, particularly moved by this “cause”. “This solidarity around him is impressive. We must not let it run out of steam.”
Together, they remain hopeful. For him…
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