Handwritten note reunites man with Milwaukee 'angels' after living unidentified in hospital for 46 days

 

WAUWATOSA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Every year, the Street Angels, a mobile outreach organization in Milwaukee that works with the houseless community, helps serve hundreds in need.

But it wasn't until recently that they received a reminder of just how great their impact truly is.

"One of our longtime friends that we had been supporting for years, he just ended up missing," said Co-director Shelly Sarasin. “It’s not unusual for people to just not be there a night or two nights, but as the weeks went on, I’m like something’s not right.”

That was at the end of November, nearly seven weeks ago.

Since then, Sarasin and the rest of the team worked endlessly to locate a man named Jason, making calls all around the area and even at some points to the local medical examiner.

“Thankfully, at no time was anybody there by his name," Sarasin told CBS 58's Ellie Nakamoto-White. 

Then on Jan. 23, came a breakthrough in the form of four simple words.

“We received a call from a local hospital that they had a gentleman there for the past 46 days who was nonverbal, came in with no ID, and had presented having a major stroke," Sarasin said. “After 46 days, they were able to hand him a piece of paper and a pen and the first things he wrote were his name and his date of birth and the next thing was, "I’m with Street Angels.”

That message caused Sarasin and the rest of the team to "drop everything" and rush to the hospital. 

"We walked into his room and there was just a sigh, a physical reaction on his body of, 'you're here,'" Sarasin recalled. “For him to just write that out, that 'I’m with Street Angels'? He knew we’d show up. He knew we’d be there.”

Now they've visited Jason multiple times, bringing notebooks and pens, handmade cards, and a little bit of hope.

"The reaction that Jason had when he saw us walk into a hospital room is something that will never leave me," said Eva Welch, the executive co-director. “We brought in three or four cards to him yesterday and there were tears flowing out of his eyes, so it means the absolute world to him to know that there’s people that care, that he’s not just left in this room alone.”

To help try and alleviate others in the future from potentially remaining unidentified, the organization ordered bracelets engraved with the saying, "I'm with Street Angels," along with their phone number.

“Many of them are truly alone, right, and that’s scary; if something were to happen to you and you’re alone, nobody knew who you were, who to call, and I think this might give them a little sense of security," Welch said. “Even his nurses said they’ve seen such a change in him when we came, that they’ve seen him trying harder, that they’ve seen him writing more and practicing more, and I can’t help but feel a lot of that was to show us that he’s trying and to make us proud of him.”

Jason still has a long way to go on his road to recovery, but the power of words can really make a difference, which is why the organization is asking for cards with encouraging messages that will then be delivered on their hospital visits.

If you want to get involved, you can either mail cards or drop them off in person at 125 N. 120th St. in Wauwatosa.