The old woman in front of the yeshiva

By TOBY GOTESMAN SCHNEIER
When I pick my son up from school, as we near the corner on Park avenue, there is an old, homeless woman who stands in the street EVERY SINGLE DAY and begs for money. Day in and day out she is there, in the rain, in the snow, in the heat. In truth, who knows whether she''s really old or if she''s just become old and weathered as a result of an impossibly hard life.
More often than not, I will roll down the window of my car and i give her a few dollars. And she always thanks me gratuitously. Yet, what strikes me every time is that she NEVER remembers me! She asks me over and over without a hint of familiarity or recognition. She doesn''t remember anything at all - or so it appears.
I wonder what the point really is; why she continues to WORK SO HARD at survival. For it would appear that she truly has nothing to live for, nothing at all.
She makes me PROFOUNDLY SAD.
That grey haired woman, begging outside the Yeshiva.