The letter came across the editor’s desk, and after he read an excerpt aloud I couldn’t get the images out of my head.

A woman named Anne, a lifelong resident of Warwick, wrote that she witnessed a good news story which took place at one of Warwick’s many donut shops.

A destitute man waited and wondered in the cold, early one November morning, before summoning the courage to open the shop door and tiptoe inside in his slippers. It was the third business he’d approached.

“Thank you for letting me come inside,” he whispered to the owner, a man named Alan.

“Why wouldn’t I let you inside?” Alan asked. The managers at the other two stores, the man confessed, said he smelled badly and would deter the customers. He only wanted to come in from the cold.

Anne’s description called to mind an old story. A hotel manager invited an unhoused traveling couple, the woman abundantly pregnant, who’d been turned away from other establishments, to seek refuge in an outbuilding because he had no vacancies.

Perhaps Alan remembered this story as well when he invited the destitute man inside and fed him, before heading out to buy the man new shoes and clothing.

Alan had noticed the man’s hospital bracelet, a reminder of the man’s stay after being attacked and beaten while walking outside a family shelter where he’d been living. Alan considered putting him up in a nearby hotel, yet uneasy with the prospect of the stares the man would incur at the front desk, he would instead drive him to the man’s friend’s house, and watch as the man waved goodbye to him from the front door.

This summoned another familiar tale. A man who’d been robbed and beaten was left by the side of the road, ignored by passersby, until a man came to his rescue, washed his wounds, and took him to an inn.

Anne shared the poignant scene in the donut shop, but humbly chose not to provide her last name or any contact information in her letter.

Anne, we need more stories like these, now more than ever! These moments witnessed by a few, when shared, spark hope. They warm us as if we had just walked in from the cold.

I have a feeling Alan Centazzo’s Honey Dew Donuts  on Warwick Avenue didn’t lose any customers that day. Surely not one named Anne.

* * *

The state of Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency has designated the Pilgrim Senior Center at 27 Pilgrim Parkway and the Warwick Public Library at 600 Sandy Lane as warming centers for temporary shelter.

The Pilgrim Center offers a warm space Monday through Friday 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM.

A respite from the cold is also offered at the Warwick Public Library Monday through Thursday 9 AM to 8 PM; Friday and Saturday 9 AM to 5 PM, and Sunday 1 PM to 5 PM.