If Elmer Alvarez came across a $10,000 cheque lying openly on a busy street corner, it would be the last thing anyone would expect him to return. Elmer did something surprising. He did the right thing!
As quickly as he could, he returned the money.
When her cheque was returned to her, Dr. Roberta Hoskie, full-time real estate agent and proprietress, could not have been more stunned-she didn’t even know it was missing!
After he returned the cheque to her, Dr. Hoskie had a hard time finding Elmer. She was eager to find the wonderful soul who had done such a marvelous thing.
Two weeks later, she presented him with the keys to his own position at the Great New Haven Chamber of Commerce. She had paid him six months’ rent upfront. When he learned the house was his, Elmer burst into tears.
Dr. Hoskie said she and her daughter had been homeless once before in a talk with NBC news. She understood how tough life out there was. In a few emotion-laden words, Elmer explains the reality: “Raining, cold, it was horrible. It was horrible.”
Dr. Hoskie thought that giving Elmer a house and leaving him to fend for himself would not be enough. She had to help him get on his feet and to be independent financially. Dr. Hoskie operates a real estate school that is profitable. At her college, she awarded him a scholarship, and Elmer has been doing well ever since.
There was only one thing Dr. Hoskie demanded from him. She told him that once he gets on his own two feet, he must help another homeless person get off the street.
When he was asked what was going through his mind when he gave the cheque back, he said, “Honestly, I gave it back from the bottom of my heart, and I expected nothing back in return.”