“I love your style. It’s very San Francisco.”

“It should be, I’ve lived here over 40 years.”

“I’ve bet you’ve got some pretty amazing stories from your time here. Wanna tell me one?”

“Oh yeah, you want a funny story or a dramatic story?”

“Hmm, how about a funny one.”

“I tend to have more dramatic stories.”

“Ok, a dramatic one then.”

“Like someone threatening my life and almost choking me. Being terrified to go home for awhile, because I knew he could break in.”

“Was it an ex lover?”

“Yeah, I had to change the locks on him and everything. Was sleeping with a chair propped under the door. Baseball bat handy by the bed. That kind of thing.”

“How did it get to that point?”

“Oh boy, almost a year and a half of problems and problems and promises that things were going to get better. I wanted to believe it, but things just kept getting worse and it got to that point where you start to feel contempt for somebody. Like, ‘I don’t believe you anymore’. It was pretty sad. Lots of heated arguments, threats, in your face yelling kind of stuff. And that’s not me. I’m the kind that pulls back but everybody’s got their breaking point. And when I finally said something, I had to be ready to run. To me that’s kinda crazy, but it’s been almost 2 years without any incident so I feel a little better now.”

“Wow, that’s nuts.”

“Yeah, you never know, but you can’t live in fear. You trust in the lord, and believe me, there’s nothing like danger to push you to prayer.”