Steve Hideg was nearly broke when I met him in 2017, and wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep covering the rent on his humble little East Hollywood apartment.
But I’d never encountered a more upbeat guy.
He was blind in one eye and deaf in one ear from injuries suffered in the bombardment of Budapest in World War II. But at 85, the jazz drummer still had a couple of gigs to look forward to each week, and that was all he needed.
Yes, he told me in his thick Hungarian accent, life was a struggle if you looked at things in terms of unpaid bills and mounting health problems.
“But it’s a beautiful struggle.”
L.A. Times photographer Francine Orr and I were looking for people living on the edge, and she hooked up with St. Vincent Meals on Wheels to scout out story possibilities. Hideg was on the delivery route, greeting his daily delivery person with a grateful, “Hello, my angel.”