A man crossed Central Avenue from the Grand Central Bus Terminal, approached Doretha’s folding table and asked whether she was giving away water. Doretha smiled, said yes, and handed him a cold bottle. He thanked her, pressed it against his forehead and then his chest before walking back across the street to catch his connecting bus.
A short time later, a man using a motorized wheelchair stopped at the table. Several bags hung from the back of his chair. Doretha asked how he was doing, handed him a bottle of water, and spoke with him briefly before he continued toward the nearby Walmart.
The exchanges lasted only a few moments. Doretha asked for no money, offered no lecture and expected nothing in return. She saw people struggling in the summer heat and decided to offer what relief she could.
A need she could meet
Doretha, who asked that her last name not be published, set up her informal “Hydration Station” outside a shopping center along Central Avenue across from the Grand Central Bus Terminal…