My Chrismas Eve "Fable": a True Story

There is a young man, in his early 20's, still living at home with his parents, named Will who wanders the streets in my neighborhood late at night. I hear him sometimes loudly singing to his favorite songs so off-key it makes your ears hurt.

Tonight, he came running into the courtyard of the church I live above. He said he came for the Christmas eve service. I told him he was 2 hours too late but that he could come back on Sunday. He was disappointed but he said he didn't mind because now he could go back to what he was doing. He started to leave but then he suddenly turned back to me and said, “ I'm going to make some changes. I'm going to get up early and be here on time. My mom said I have to stop staying out all night partying and sleeping all day. I'm going to make some changes”. 

I said that sounded like a good thing to do. He talked for a few more minutes saying basically the same thing a few more times and then he left.

Later that night, after I had returned home from a late movie, I heard him singing as he walked in the streets to nowhere. My heart went out to him and wished something good to happen for him. I thought about how alone in the world he must feel, how he must need to feel connected to something more than his small family. That's why he still comes to this church once in a while though he came more regularly as a child.  People here accepted him for who he was.

“This guy needs a woman. Someone who'll love him besides his mother”, I thought to myself. But who would love him? Someone like him, came the answer. Someone who is developmentally disabled like him. Will was born with Down's Syndrome. I imagined that somewhere, probably closer than one might expect, a young woman, in a similar condition and circumstances, who could love him.

I wanted to “fix him up” somehow. There must be a way. There must be some sort of network for people like Will. There's a network or support group for everyone these days, right? I know this sounds like a story but this is real and I'm serious. I want to find someone for Will. I need help to do that so I'm sending this out to the world as my prayer for Will: That somehow he'll find someone to love him.