February 21, 2018.

Okay, hello. Seems as any other night here, downstairs. Well, watching a spider spin it's home on the wall, connecting it's hopes and dreams to an old poster.

After years of being a regular percipient to the Bakery's seating area. Sitting there in the sun room, watching the traffic of cars and pedestrians go by. In the brightness of a sunny day, with not a cloud in the sky, seeing tourist take a leisure stroll in their summer outfits, up and down and around our town. Or the sites of hoodless cars waiting for the light at the intersection to change. Watching couples kiss, and to hear of customers discuss excitingly of plans of what to do, while they buy baked goods. Oh, what a jovial time of year for this quaint community. Then there's the depressing realization of the upcoming winter as that becomes the prominent replacement of talk over the tourist, cars, local events, and the sun shine. Watching the leaves fall towards the Earth, and the motor bikers drive by in hordes, all of them trying to get the last ride of the year in. Watching rain fall, from the darkness of the gray sky, and the wind tear the leaves from their home. Towards the soaked ground, tourist, which many have the same gloom in their face as the weather appears. As they walk towards their cars, stepping on those fallen leaves, avoiding the deeper puddles as they make way towards their cars, as they drive away from this town, taking their jackets with them. Then the first snowfall appears, business slows. The people who stay, getting ready for the upcoming winter. Watching as the bundled up people in cars drive towards somewhere in their life. Gazing upon the one or two tracks going up and down town. The snow attracting a different set of tourist. Then after a few holidays, spring arrives, and with that a new year. The fog days, watching head lights and street lights stream around like yellow rain through the gray abyss. Seeing umbrellas being sported about.

Through all that and more, in the past ten or so years has been this homeless couple that could be sighted from the Bakery's seating area for a time. They have come up as a topic of conversation among us regulars. Some here and others around town scold them for not applying for work, for they both are capable of working. However they are pretty admirable, that they have survived our harsh winters for over 10 years. Now, the homeless, have an especially rough time here, there's a community of them living in the nearby woods. For this town has no homeless shelter, and support for the homeless mainly comes from local churches and by people who feel as if they should help. This couple gets by with a ,supposed, little support if any. Well, this couple also owns a dog, and takes in as many stray cats as they can. To our wonderment they have been able to afford groceries, for we see them traversing the downtown side walk with them. They once had lived in a house and the man ran his own lawn care company.

Until something happened, not sure what that happened. However, they at a time of being homeless had owned their truck and few personal possessions, until. One night where they were resting in a downtown parking lot, someone called the police to get rid of them. The police came and asked them to move, they refused, so the police took them to jail and confiscated their possessions and his truck and trailer. They threw away most of their possessions, which one was a scrap book, filled with pictures of their family and they sold the truck and trailer. After being released from jail, they continued to survive freely, out there in the beautiful and harsh weather. They had each other, the dog, and various cats. How they spent those years lies with them. But, on the sunny days they passed with a smile on their face, and frown on their frozen, stained white face, as the winter passed on through. Who knows their story of how they lived and manged those ten plus years, for not many would even bat an eye their way.

This winter was/has been harsher then past winters. On one especially cold winters night. the temperature with wind chill dropped to -27 degrees. Since then, they have not been seen, and as far as we know, no report of their death has been made. After 2 months of absence, the talk about them has been about what might have happened, even that has faded away. And with their supposed deaths, we may now only speculate as to what their lives where and how they went about living that way. However, personally believe, that on that coldest night of the year, can only image how that night went, how they told each other that they would survive, and then as the cold set in more then normal, they may have asked what's the point of living any longer, the point of life. And other such questions that dying people ask as they go through the most serious part of life. As the cold became heat, can only imagine as they undressed, fell to ground, her left hand clutching his right hand, as they lay on their backs starring at the memories passing through their mind as they close their eyes and fade away. Leaving behind two corpses, holding hands, as the eyes stare at the darkness of the eye lid brings, that solidarity peace as well. As the cool crisp air remains still and the dark sky over head, pitch as black, except where there are two shining stars, hands bound with each others, ascending in to that pitch black abyss. Taking their legacy with them.